IL6 and stroke disorder: Patients with elevated levels of both IL-6 and YKL-40 also had increased risk of recurrent stroke (adjusted HR, 1.37; 95% CI 1.14–1.63; P = 0.0007), poor functional outcome (adjusted OR 1.36; 95% CI 1.17–1.58; P < 0.0001) and dependence or death (adjusted OR 1.91; 95% CI 1.56–2.34; P < 0.0001) (Tables 2, 3 and Additional file 1: Table S12).