ABO blood group influences risk of venous thromboembolism and myocardial infarction

ABO blood group has been associated with various disease phenotypes. However, ABO blood group to influence patients in risk of venous thromboembolic events (VTEs) and arterial thromboembolic events (ATEs) remains controversial after evaluation in several reports. To fully assess effects of ABO blood group on VTEs and ATEs, we conducted a cross-sectional study and investigated the interaction between blood group and age, and between blood group and sex on the prevalence of VTEs and ATEs. In addition, the effect of blood group on ATEs in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) was observed. Detailed information of 7830 patients was collected. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the association between blood group and VTEs, pulmonary embolism (PE) and myocardial infarction (MI). In those 7830 patients, the respective risk of VTEs and PE was higher for patients with blood group A compared with blood group O individually. In those 6713 patients with rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathy, myocarditis, constrictive pericarditis, or valvular heart disease excluded, blood group A was associated with the risk of MI. For VTEs, PE, and MI, blood group also exhibited significant interactions with sex and age, although there was no evidence of interaction between blood group and age for VTEs. In addition, interactions among blood group, age, and AF for the ATEs were observed. Similar to prior population studies an association of ABO blood group with susceptibility to VTEs and MI was found. Age and sex may modulate the association between ABO blood group and these thromboembolic diseases.