Abstract
Relationships between gene polymorphisms in the renin-angiotensin system and cardiovascular diseases remain controversial, though several polymorphisms in these genes have been extensively investigated. In the present study, we analyzed 120 patients with myocardial infarction (MI) in the National Hiroshima Hospital to clarify whether or not the angiotensinogen (AGT) T235 variant is associated with increased risk for MI. The allele frequency of T235 in the MI patients and the control subjects were 0.88 and 0.75, respectively (p<0.05). The odds ratio for MI between individuals with threonin homozygote compared with those with the other genotypes was 1.75 (p=0.0021) Distrbution of the polymorphism in the control group was not departed from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, These data indicate AGT gene T235 variants is a risk factor for MI. Medical services of this hospital cover an area of agriculture, which may be able to account for differences of this study form the previous reports from Japan.
