Characteristics of the patients.

<p>Characteristics of the patients.</p

Real-time RT-PCR-analysis of miRNAs from carotid endarterectomy specimen from patients with asymptomatic and symptomatic plaques and from unaffected specimen from the internal mammary artery of healthy controls.

<p><b>(A) unchanged expression, (B) down-regulated expression vs. control and (C) up-regulate expression vs. control.</b> Snord44 was used as housekeeping control for normalization and the relative miRNA expression was calculated using the 2^-ΔΔCT method. con = control, asP = endarterectomy samples of asymptomatic plaques, sP = endarterectomy samples of symptomatic plaques. Data are presented as box plot with median (25^th/75^th percentiles) and whiskers (10^th/90^th percentiles). *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001 vs. con, ^#P<0.05, ^##P<0.01 vs. sP</p

Intersection graph shows miRNAs which were significantly up- (↑) or down-regulated (↓) in endarterectomy specimen from patients with asymptomatic and symptomatic plaques vs. unaffected specimen from the internal mammary artery of healthy controls.

<p>Significant different expression between asymptomatic and symptomatic plaque samples is indicated by an asterisk (*).</p

Target genes of the selected miRNAs and their impact on atherosclerosis.

<p>Target genes of the selected miRNAs and their impact on atherosclerosis.</p

Relationship of observed to expected mortality (O/E ratio) predicted by the German KCH score for the GOPCABE trial population.

<p>Relationship of observed to expected mortality (O/E ratio) predicted by the German KCH score for male and female patients of the GOPCABE trial population. Risk for women was analyzed either with or without factor sex. Note that eliminating factor sex from the risk model substantially increased O/E ratio (see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0184038#sec008" target="_blank">methods</a> for details).</p

Perioperative characteristics.

<p>Perioperative characteristics.</p

Sex-specific analysis of primary and secondary variables.

<p>Sex-specific analysis of primary and secondary variables.</p

Observed and predicted perioperative mortality according to sex.

<p>Observed and predicted perioperative mortality according to sex.</p