Association of ACE I/D gene polymorphism with vascular dementia: a meta-analysis.
BACKGROUND
Vascular dementia is the second common cause of dementia, only second to Alzheimer's disease in later life, and has a greater mortality risk than Alzheimer's disease among the elderly population group. The angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphism as a risk factor in vascular dementia has been suggested, but direct evidence from genetic association studies remain inconclusive. We performed a meta-analysis pooling data from all relevant studies in order to determine the effect of the insertion/deletion polymorphism on the vascular dementia.


METHODS
We applied a random-effects model or fixed-effects model to combine odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals. Q statistic was used to evaluate the homogeneity, and Egger's test and Funnel plot were used to assess publication bias.


RESULTS
A total of 10 studies were included worldwide. Publication bias was not observed. There was no evidence of the association of angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphism with the vascular dementia in general or in the Asian populations or in the Caucasian populations.


CONCLUSIONS
The angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphism might be neutral to vascular dementia.
Liu
Hua
H
Department of Neurology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Sichuan Province, PR China.
Liu
Ming
M
Li
Wei
W
Wu
Bo
B
Zhang
Shi-hong
SH
Fang
Yuan
Y
Wang
Yi
Y
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D054643:INDEL Mutation; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D007703:Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A / Q000235:genetics*; D012307:Risk Factors
D007703:Peptidyl-Dipeptidase A