Acute plaque rupture causes thrombosis, vessel occlusion, and MI/stroke, while ongoingactivation of coagulation drives plaque growth.5–9 Indeed, thrombin inhibition is shown to reduce atherosclerosis byapproximately half,10,11 but it is not known if this actioncould be, in part, via reduced thrombin activation of IL-1α. The gene discussed is IL1A; the disease is stroke disorder.