Fig. 1

Study design. a Screening and inclusion of patients in the present analysis. b Diagram of the planned successive hypotheses about relationship between on-admission fibrinogen and imaging and clinical findings. Full arrows indicate direct associations and dotted arrows indicate the assumed indirect (mediated “through” mediator variables) associations. CTA angiography by computed tomography, DSA digital subtraction angiography, MRA angiography by magnetic resonance, NECT non-enhanced computed tomography, NIHSS National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, rt-PA recombinant tissue plasminogen activator