Jenny NS, et al. - In a biracial cohort, researchers evaluated if certain cytokines mediated racial disparity in the incidence of stroke affecting the black population by assessing concentrations of circulating interleukin (IL)–6, IL-8, and IL-10 and incident ischemic stroke risk. In 2003-2007, 30,237 black and white men and women age ≥45 were enrolled in this study. According to results, IL-6 was higher in cases vs the cohort sample, but IL-8 or IL-10 were not. Only IL-6 was linked to stroke risk factors, even after additional adjustment for stroke risk factors. Findings revealed that IL-6 was strongly associated with the risk of incident stroke in this biracial population and mediated the racial disparity in stroke via inflammatory effects of risk factors. It would be helpful to further study the clinical utility of measuring IL-6 in stroke risk assessment.