With the additional adjustment for CRP, the participants in the 4th WBC quartile had a significant association only for fatal all stroke (aHR =1.57, 95% CI 1.02–2.42, P = 0.04), but an increasing risk trend was evident for both fatal all stroke (P = 0.012) and fatal ischaemic stroke (P = 0.02) among 10,041 participants with normal WBC counts (4 ~ 10*10^9/L) (Left side of Table 3). Here, CRP is linked to ischemic stroke.