A polymorphism (-455G>A) in the β-fibrinogen gene is associated with an increased risk of cerebral infarction in the Chinese population: A meta-analysis.

Background: Previous studies have investigated the association between a polymorphism (-455 G>A) in the β-fibrinogen gene and the risk of cerebral infarction. However, these results are controversial. To shed light on these inconclusive findings, we performed a meta-analysis of studies relating the β-fibrinogen genetic polymorphism (-455 G>A) to the risk of cerebral infarction.

Methods: We identified literature published before July 2013 by searching PubMed, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science, the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure database (CNKI) and the Wanfang database in China and by reviewing the references of retrieved articles. We included studies that reported odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for the association between the β-fibrinogen genetic polymorphism and cerebral infarction risk. Publication bias was tested by a funnel plot, and the OR of all studies were combined dependent on the results of the heterogeneity tests among the individual studies. The software Review Manager (Version 5.2) was used for meta-analysis.

Results: Twenty independent case-control studies containing 9477 subjects were included. Our results showed that the -455 G>A polymorphism in the β-fibrinogen gene was associated with the increased risk of cerebral infarction [(AA+GA) vs. GG, OR=1.17, 95%CI: 1.04-1.31, p=0.008; A vs. G, OR=1.12, 95%CI: 1.01-1.23, p=0.03] in the Chinese population by a meta-analysis. However, we did not find this association in the Caucasian population [(AA+GA) vs. GG, OR=0.99, 95%CI: 0.87-1.11, p=0.84; A vs. G, OR=0.97, 95%CI: 0.84-1.13, p=0.73, respectively].

Conclusion: The results of our meta-analysis indicate that the -455 G>A polymorphism in the β-fibrinogen gene is a susceptibility marker of ischemic cerebral infarction in the Chinese population.