Androgens and selected cardiovascular risk factors in aging men

Glu298Asp endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene polymorphism and coronary artery disease in Caucasians, A meta-analysis Objective: A number of studies recently reported a positive association between the Glu298Asp polymorphism in endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene and coronary artery diseases (CAD), However, others were unable to replicate these finding. To re-evaluate the association between the Glu298Asp polymorphism and CAD in Caucasian population by performing a meta-analysis of all published case-control studies. Methods and Results: We searched Medline and Embase for articles about the Glu298Asp polymorphism and CAD, until September 2003. We found 20 studies and included 13 cases-control series from 8 studies in Caucasian, contained 7998 patients with CAD and 5471 healthy controls. The overall frequencies for TT, GT, and GG genotype were 12.6%, 43.0% 44.4% in cases, and 10.2%, 44.7%, and 45.1% in controls, respectively. The overall distribution of T allele in the case and control subjects was 34.1% and 32.5%. The pooled estimate odds ratio of CAD by use of Dersimonian and Laird's random effects model was 1.11 (95% CI: 0.94, 1.30) for TT versus GG, and 1.12 (0.98, 1.28) for TT versus GT and GG combined. Conclusions: Our finding in a meta-analysis of 13 independent case-control studies, argued against the hypothesis that the eNOS Glu298Asp polymorphism is a major risk factor for coronary artery disease in the Caucasian population.