Furthermore, symptomatic patients who had experienced an ipsilateral ischemic stroke in comparison to asymptomatic patients (no ischemic events) had a significant increase in the number of Myh11+ Cleaved Caspase 1+ CD68+ as a percentage of the total Myh11+ present in human carotid atherosclerotic plaques in comparison to asymptomatic patients (Figure 8c). The gene discussed is MYH11; the disease is ischemic stroke.