Background-
This study was designed to investigate whether isolated genetic factors,
controlled by genes in the HLA chromosomal region, could be indicated as
independent contributing influences in genesis of coronary artery disease (CAD).
Methods and Results-
Twenty-four patients with fixed obstructive CAD documented by coronary
angiography had no coronary risk factors with respect to age, levels of serum
cholesterol, fasting TG, blood glucose, blood pressure, obesity, a history of
diabetes mellitus or hypertension, cigarette smoking history, left ventricular
hypertrophy, and abnormal body mass index. 4 patients also had a positive family
history of CAD. HLA typing was limited to antigens of DR &
DQ loci.
Control
subjects (n = 12) were normal. As our sample volume was low, the analysis was
not meaningful; therefore we accepted meaningful as 0.1. At DR1, DR2, DR3, DR7,
DR10, DR14, DR15, DQ1, DQ2 loci, no antigens demonstrated an observed frequency
significantly higher than that expected from the control population. At DR4,
DR11, DQ3 loci had significantly greater frequency (45.5%, 37.5%, and 70.8%)
with p values that were 0.086, 0.069, 0.02 respectively in the study
group with CAD than in the control population (16.7%, 8.3%, 41.7%) with odds
ratios of 4.23, 6.6, 3.4 for CAD if the patient had an antigen respectively.
Conclusions- Our data suggest a statistically significant trend
between the presence of HLA - DR4, DR11 and DQ3 and CAD