Figure 4

Acute phase and 3-month protein clusters, and correlations with clinical variables for 62 candidate acute and/or 3-month markers with statistically significant or suggestive associations with acute stroke severity or neurological outcome. Hierarchical protein clusters based on Euclidean distance in the acute phase (a) and at 3-months after stroke (b), with information on association between protein levels (Normalized Protein eXpression [NPX]) and neurological outcome according to the NIH stroke scale (NIHSS) given in the first rows. Model 1 includes adjustment for age, sex and day of blood draw and model 2 is additionally adjusted for acute stroke severity (NIHSS). In following rows, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients (r) between proteins and clinical variables at each time-point are displayed in heat maps where correlations with p < 0.05 are marked in colour. Positive correlations (r > 0) between protein levels, increasing stroke severity (NIHSS), age, and sampling day are marked red, and inverse correlations (r < 0) are marked blue. For sex, a positive correlation (r > 0, red boxes) corresponds to higher protein levels in males than females, and for remaining risk factors a positive correlation corresponds to higher protein levels in participants with that risk factor prevalent.