Pioglitazone may exert anti-atherosclerotic effects on type 2 diabetics carrying the ACE gene's D allele and/or MTHFR gene's 677T allele, who showed a progression of carotid atherosclerosis without the drug.
The risk of carotid atherosclerosis associated with long-term ACE-inhibitor treatment compared with no use of ACE-inhibitors was lower in subjects with the TT genotype than in subjects with the MM genotype of the AGT gene (SI = 0.20; 95% CI 0.04, 0.95).
Therefore, the present study aimed to clarify whether ACE gene deletion polymorphism was associated with carotid atherosclerosis in a large Japanese general population with a more homogeneous genetic background than Caucasian populations.
Moreover, no association was identified between ACE genotypes and any of the relative risk factors for cerebral infarction or severity of carotid atherosclerosis.
Angiotensinogen and angiotensin converting enzyme genotypes and carotid atherosclerosis: the atherosclerosis risk in communities and the NHLBI family heart studies.
ACE I/D polymorphism was determined in 240 low-risk patients (mean age 53.6 +/- 7 years) in relation to traditional risk factors and the degree of carotid atherosclerosis.