ABO blood group distribution and major cardiovascular risk factors in patients with acute myocardial infarction

We aimed to investigate whether there is an association between ABO blood groups, cardiovascular risk factors and myocardial infarction (MI) in a Turkish cohort. Four hundred and seventy-six patients with acute ST elevation MI (mean age 56.7+/-11.7; 80% men) and 203 age and sex matched healthy subjects were enrolled in the study. ABO blood group distribution of patients was compared with control group. Furthermore, in each ABO blood group, frequency of major cardiac risk factors was determined to find any correlation between blood groups and cardiovascular risk factors. The distribution of ABO blood groups in patients versus control group was A in 43.1 versus 44.3%, B in 15.1 versus 15.3%, AB in 10.7 versus 12.3% and O in 31.1 versus 28.1% (P>0.05 for all). ABO blood group distribution of both patients and control group was concordant with the official data from general Turkish population. The frequency of cardiovascular risk factors was similar in patients with different blood groups; however, the patients with blood group A were younger (P=0.004) and coronary artery disease detection age was lower (P=0.001) than those with the other blood groups. The distribution of ABO blood groups in patients with MI was quite similar to that in control group and that of general Turkish population, which supports the idea that ABO blood group might not be significantly associated with the development of MI. Association of ABO blood group distribution with cardiovascular risk factors, coronary artery disease and MI needs to be clarified with multicenter, prospective and large-scale studies.