Association of C7673T polymorphism in apolipoprotein B gene with ischemic stroke in the Chinese population: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

Epidemiological studies have evaluated the association between the C7673T polymorphism in apolipoprotein B (apoB) gene and ischemic stroke (IS), but the results are still debatable even in the Chinese population. This meta-analysis was therefore designed to clarify these controversies.

METHODS

All of the relevant studies were identified from PubMed, Embase, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure database and Chinese Wanfang database up to 31 October 2014. Statistical analyses were conducted with Revman 5.2 and STATA 12.0 software. Odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) values were applied to evaluate the strength of the association. A fixed or random effect model was selected for pooling data based on the heterogeneity test. Publication bias was assessed by Begg's test and Egger's test.

RESULTS

A significant association was found between the C7673T polymorphism in apoB gene and IS under the heterozygous genetic model (OR = 1.868, 95% CI = 1.160-3.007) and the allelic genetic model (OR = 1.742, 95% CI = 1.294-2.346), respectively. In the subgroup analysis by the geographic region, T allele could increase the risk of IS in northern Chinese (OR = 2.359, 95% CI: 1.425-3.907), but not in southern Chinese individuals (OR = 1.485, 95% CI: 0.778-2.832). Further stratification for source of controls showed that statistical significance was found among the population-based studies.

CONCLUSION

Our meta-analysis revealed that C7673T polymorphism in apoB gene was significantly associated with increased IS risk in the Chinese population.