GENETIC RISK FOR RENAL-ARTERY STENOSIS - ASSOCIATION WITH DELETION POLYMORPHISM IN ANGIOTENSIN 1-CONVERTING ENZYME GENE

Atherosclerotic renal artery disease is an important secondary cause o f hypertension. Currently, there is great interest in possible genetic determinants of cardiovascular disease. The ACE-D allele has been rep orted to be associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction as well as coronary re-stenosis after angioplasty. We therefore assessed whether this allele is also linked to renovascular disease by studyin g 56 Caucasian subjects with atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis and 74 age, sex and race matched control subjects. Genetic analysis for t he ACE I/D polymorphism was performed on peripheral leukocytes using P CR techniques, including insertion-specific primers. The distribution of I and D alleles was: renal artery stenosis 8 II: 25 ID, 23 DD; and controls, 16 II, 41 ID, 17 DD. The frequency of the D allele in the re nal artery stenosis group was significantly higher (D/total 71/112 = 0 .66) than that of the control population [75/148 = 0.51; chi(2) = 4.17 , P = 0.04; odds ratio 1.69 (95% CI 1.02 to 2.78)]. Our results sugges t that the ACE-D allele may be associated with increased risk of vascu lar disease at sites other than the coronary circulation.