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(Stroke. 2008;39:3159.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.

Original Contributions

Segment-Specific Genetic Effects on Carotid Intima-Media Thickness

The Northern Manhattan Study

Yi-Chu Liao, MD, MS; Hsiu-Fen Lin, MD; Tatjana Rundek, MD, PhD; Rong Cheng, PhD; Yuh-Cherng Guo, MD; Ralph L. Sacco, MD, MS Suh-Hang Hank Juo, MD, PhD

From the Graduate Institute of Medical Genetics (Y.-C.L., S.-H.H.J.), the Graduate Institute of Medicine (Y.-C.L., Y.-C.G.), Center of Excellence for Environmental Medicine (S.-H.H.J.), and the Department of Neurology (H.-F.L., S.-H.H.J.), Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; the Department of Neurology (Y.-C.L.), Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; the Department of Neurology (H.-F.L., Y.-C.G.), Kaohsiung Municipal Hsiao-Kang Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; the Department of Neurology (T.R., R.L.S.), Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Fla; and The Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center (R.C.), Columbia University, New York, NY.

Correspondence to Suh-Hang Hank Juo, MD, PhD, Kaohsiung Medical University, 100 TzYou First Road, Kaohsiung City 807, Taiwan. E-mail hjuo{at}kmu.edu.tw

Background and Purpose— Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) is a surrogate marker of subclinical atherosclerosis and a strong predictor of stroke and myocardial infarction. The object of this study was to determine the association between carotid IMT and 702 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 145 genes.

Methods— B-mode carotid ultrasound was performed among 408 Hispanics from the Northern Manhattan Study. The common carotid artery IMT and bifurcation IMT were phenotypes of interest. Genetic effects were evaluated by the multivariate regression model adjusting for traditional vascular risk factors. For each individual, we calculated a gene risk score (GRS) defined as the total number of the significant single nucleotide polymorphisms in different genes. Subjects were then divided into 3 GRS categories using the 2 cutoff points: mean GRS ±1 SD.

Results— We identified 6 significant single nucleotide polymorphisms in 6 genes for common carotid artery IMT and 7 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 7 genes for bifurcation IMT using the probability value of 0.005 as the significant level. There were no common significant genes for both phenotypes. The most significant genes were the tissue plasminogen activator (P=0.0005 for common carotid artery IMT) and matrix metallopeptidase-12 genes (P=0.0004 for bifurcation IMT). Haplotype analysis did not yield a more significant result. Subjects with GRS 9 had significantly increased IMT than those with GRS 5 (P<0.001). GRS was an independent predictor of both common carotid artery IMT (P=2.3x10^–9) and bifurcation MT (P=7.2x10^–8).

Conclusions— Multiple genes contributed to the variation in carotid IMT. IMT in different carotid segments may be regulated by different sets of susceptibility genes.

Key Words: atherosclerosis • carotid intima-media thickness • genetics • polymorphism

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