ACE GENE POLYMORPHISM - ISCHEMIC-HEART-DISEASE AND LONGEVITY IN 10150INDIVIDUALS - A CASE-REFERENT AND RETROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY BASED ONTHE COPENHAGEN CITY HEART-STUDY

Background Homozygosity for the deletion allele (D) of the angiotensin -converting enzyme (ACE) gene insertion-deletion polymorphism has been suggested to be a potent risk factor for myocardial infarction. With one exception, the samples studied so far have been small and/or ethni cally heterogeneous, and most investigators have studied men only. Met hods and Results We investigated the association between ACE genotype and myocardial infarction as well as other manifestations of ischemic heart disease for both women and men in a case-referent study (n=10 15 0) as well as in a retrospective cohort study (n=7263). The cohort was from the ethnically homogeneous Danish population. Case subjects were from the same geographic area and had ischemic heart disease. Irrespe ctive of the assumed degree of relative penetrance of the D allele, th e odds ratios were not significantly different from 1.0 (P>.05) for is chemic heart disease, severe stenosis on coronary angiography, or myoc ardial infarction. There was also no association between ACE genotype and phenotypic variation in recognized risk factors for ischemic heart disease. Finally, the relative frequency of the D allele did not chan ge as a function of age in subjects aged from 20 to greater than or eq ual to 80 years. Conclusions In two large studies, a case-referent stu dy and a retrospective cohort study in an ethnically homogeneous white population, there was no evidence for a statistically significant dif ference in the development of myocardial infarction or any other manif estations of ischemic heart disease between genotype classes of the AC E gene polymorphism in either women or men.