[The effect of polymorphisms of the angiotensin-converting enzyme and angiotensinogen genes on the phenotypic expression of Spanish patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy].

BACKGROUND

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) has a great variability in its morphofunctional expression. This study analyzes whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and angiotensinogen (AGT) gene polymorphisms modulate the phenotypic expression in Spanish patients with HCM.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Forty Spanish HCM patients were studied. Twenty-six out of these 40 patients belonged to 7 families with familial HCM, and the remaining 14 patients had either a sporadic HCM or a HCM with unknown family incidence. A group of 269 healthy subjects was included as control for the genotype study. Maximal wall thickness, ventricular mass and several diastolic function indexes were measured in each patient by Doppler-echocardiography. The insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of ACE gene and the M235T polymorphism of AGT gene were studied in both patients and healthy subjects.

RESULTS

A higher frequency in patients than in controls was found for D allele (0.79 vs 0.64; p = 0.02) and for DD genotype (62.5 vs 41.2%; p = 0.02). Conversely, no difference was observed in M235T polymorphism between both groups. Neither DD genotype of ACE, nor TT genotype of AGT determined a greater degree of ventricular hypertrophy or a worse diastolic function in patients with HCM.

CONCLUSIONS

D allele and DD genotype are predisposing factors to express HCM. In this series of Spanish patients, I/D polymorphism of ACE and M235T polymorphism of AGT do not modify phenotypic expression of HCM.