Association of ACE gene I/D polymorphism and ACE levels with hemorrhagic stroke: comparison with ischemic stroke

In the present study, we investigated the association of insertion/deletion polymorphism of ACE gene with genetic predisposition to hemorrhagic stroke and also determined the mean ACE activity levels in ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke patients. Two hundred hemorrhagic stroke, 200 ischemic stroke patients and 200 gender and age matched controls were recruited for the study. We found statistically significant difference in the genotypic distribution between hemorrhagic patients and controls for dominant, co-dominant and recessive models. Significant difference was observed in the allelic frequencies between hemorrhagic patients and controls. Multiple logistic regression analysis confirmed these findings [adjusted OR for DD genotype was 2.46 (95 % CI 1.43-4.21) and p = 0.001] and [adjusted OR for ID genotype was 5.45 (95 % CI 2.6-10.4) and p = 0.001]. We have already established the association of this polymorphism in ischemic stroke patients. Comparing hemorrhagic with ischemic stroke, we found a significant difference in genotypic distribution between the two [for II vs. DD, χ (2) = 4.75; p = 0.03, OR = 0.5 (95 % CI 0.27-0.93) and for DD vs. ID, χ (2) = 5.1; p = 0.02, OR = 1.8 (95 % CI 1.1-3.3)]. Our results indicate that DD genotype and D allele are important risk factors for the development of stroke. Individuals harboring DD genotype of ACE I/D polymorphism are more predisposed to hemorrhagic stroke than ischemic stroke. Further, the mean ACE activity level was found to be significantly higher in hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke in comparison with controls, but there was no significant difference in the levels found between the two types of stroke.