Association of blood group A with increased risk of coronary heart disease in the Pakistani population

ABSTRACT

Many reports have appeared in recent years showing an association between blood groups and cardiovascular diseases. Clinical studies in developed countries have shown that individuals of the A blood group phenotype are more susceptible to Coronary Heart Disease [CHD]. The present study was designed to investigate the correlation of ABO blood groups and CHD in the South Asian population. 252 CHD patients and 75 healthy controls were recruited from Karachi and Nawabshah, Pakistan. The results obtained in this study show that the prevalence of CHD in blood group A is invariably higher than in all other ABO blood groups. It is striking that despite the fact that the most prevalent blood group among Pakistanis is phenotype B, the incidence of CHD is highest in individuals with blood group phenotype A. This suggests that a certain CHD risk is associated with phenotype A. Thus, we conclude that, in the Pakistani cohort investigated in the present study, blood group phenotype A is associated with a substantially increased risk for CHD, which seems independent of conventional cardiovascular risk factors