Background: Extensive data support the link between inflammation and stroke. Coated-platelets, a subset of platelets with high procoagulant potential observed upon dual agonist stimulation with collagen and thrombin, are elevated in acute ischemic stroke also identify asymptomatic carotid stenosis patients at high risk for stroke or TIA. Because inflammation may be involved in coated-platelet synthesis, we explored whether inflammatory markers are associated with coated-platelet levels in with asymptomatic carotid atherosclerosis. Methods: Coated-platelet levels were assayed for 124 asymptomatic patients referred for carotid Doppler evaluation. Serum was obtained simultaneously for measurement of inflammatory markers using the Bio-Plex Pro Human Cytokine 27-plex Assay kit (Bio-Rad Laboratories). Hs-CRP was also measured. Inflammatory markers were analyzed as independent variables according to quartiles of marker concentration with coated-platelet levels as a continuous dependent variable. Backward stepwise regression was conducted to find the best combination of predictors of coated-platelet levels. Markers having bivariate correlations with coated-platelet levels at the 0.25 significance level were included as potential predictors. Relevant demographic and comorbid factors were also considered. Variables with p values < 0.05 were retained in the final model. Results: Bivariate analysis revealed significant correlations between coated-platelet levels and IL-7 (r= -0.22, p=0.013) and MCP-1 (r= -0.22, p=0.013). These and 7 variables correlating with coated-platelet levels at p≤0.25 (IL-10, IL-13, IL-5, IP-10, MIP-1b, RANTES, and previous stroke/TIA) were assessed using stepwise multiple regression analysis. MCP-1 was the only variable retained in the model (b= -2.99, SE=1.2, F=6.20, p=0.015, R2=0.062). Conclusions: There was a statistically significant inverse association between MCP-1 and coated-platelets, although the effect size was modest. These findings suggest that the role played by inflammation in coated-platelet synthesis, as assessed with currently available markers, is small. Thus, other mechanisms coated-platelet potential determination should be explored.