CRP and ischemic stroke: In contrast to the reports with incongruent factors [15–20], we found that the WBC quartiles showed an increasing risk trend for fatal ischaemic stroke; this weaker association may be due to our added adjustments for self-rated health, genitourinary disease, chest disease, the platelet count and CRP but lack of adjustments for total, HDL and LDL cholesterol, as well as fibrillation level.