The role of the t-PA I/D and PAI-1 4G/5G polymorphisms in African-Americanadults with a diagnosis of myocardial infarction or venous thromboembolism

To determine whether or not the PAI-1 4G/5G and t-PA I/D polymorphisms in A frican-Americans were linked to cardiovascular disease, the association of these polymorphisms to disease expression was analyzed in a recently comple ted case-control study of myocardial infarction or venous thromboembolism a mong African-Americans. All African-Americans patients with a history of ve nous thromboembolism attending an anticoagulant clinic, and patients with a history of a MI attending a cardiology clinic at a large local urban publi c hospital were eligible for inclusion as cases in the study. In this study it was observed that there was a statistically significant association bet ween the D allele of the t-PA I/D polymorphism and venous thromboembolism a nd a nonsignificant association between the D allele and myocardial infarct ion among African-Americans. t-PA antigen levels were statistically signifi cantly higher among both myocardial infarction and venous thromboembolism c ases compared with control subjects. The genotypes were unrelated to t-PA p lasma levels. There was no association between either myocardial infarction or venous thromboembolism and the 4G/5G PAI-1 genotype. It was also found that genotype frequencies for both PAI-1 4G/5G and t-PA I/D polymorphisms i n African-American adults were different from those reported for both U.S. Causcians and Europeans. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.