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. This evidence concerns the gene IL1A and Stroke.