Résumé
Epidemiological studies indicate a positive relation between iron status and coronary artery disease (CAD) risk The HFE C282Y allele is associated with increased iron status and higher CAD risk. We investigated whether HFE C282Ymight be a CAD risk factor in Curaçao in a case-control study design. The patient group comprised 42 men and 10 women. Fifty-four men and 30 women without history of CAD served as age and gender matched controls. HFE C282Y genotypes were established using sequence-specific priming polymerase chain reaction. None of the investigated subjects were homozygous for HFE C282Y, whereas 5/52 (9.6) CAD patients and 1/84 controls (1.2) were heterozygous for HFE C282Y (p = 0.03). The HFE C282Y mutation was 8.8 fold (95 CI 1.001, 77.8; p = 0.049) more prevalent in CAD patients than in controls. The HFE C282Y allele frequency in Curaçao is higher than that of African populations, but comparable with that of Jamaica. We conclude that Curaçao CAD patients have somewhat higher frequency of HFE C282Y heterozygosity than controls, and that the HFE C282Y allele frequency in the Curaçao population is higher than might be expected in persons of African descent. The consequences of HFE C282Y heterozygosity as CAD risk factor are as yet uncertain, since there is no proof that iron lowering reduces CAD risk