Association of coagulation and fibrinolysis gene polymorphisms with coronary artery disease (The Zagreb cohort)

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a multifactorial disease influenced by both genetic and environmental determinants. Since coagulation activation plays a key role in thrombus formation, genetic mutations of proteins involved in coagulation and fibrinolysis may have a role in the pathogenesis CAD. The aim of our study was to investigate the association between the risk of CAD and genetic factors thought to be associated with an increased tendency to thrombosis: polymorphisms 4G/5G and G11053T of PAI-1 gene, G-455A of fibrinogen gene, G10976A and – 323 0/10-bp of factor VII gene, G1691A of factor V gene, and G20210A of prothrombin gene. We performed a case-control study evaluating 479 patients with angiographically documented CAD (>50% stenosis of at least one coronary artery) and 200 controls without CAD (<10% stenosis). The polymorpisms were genotyped using a multilocus genotyping assay for candidate markers of cardiovascular disease risk (Roche Molecular Systems Inc, USA). After adjustment for other risk factors the following odds ratios (OR) and confidence intervals (95% CI) were obtained (dominant and recessive models): PAI-1 4G/4G and 11053 TT (OR 1.24 and 0.84, 95% CI 0.84 to 1.83 and 0.56 to 1.25, respectively), fibrinogen – 455AA (OR 1.05, 95% CI 0.75 to 1.50), factor VII 10976AA and – 32310/10-bp (OR 0.58 and 0.59, 95% CI 0.11 to 2.97 and 0.15 to 2.25, respectively). In conclusion, the studied polymorphisms were not associated with CAD in this cohort.