Angiotensin-converting enzyme gene polymorphism and coronary heart disease in Turkish type 2 diabetic patients

Objective - It has been suggested that the insertion (I)/deletion (D) polymorphism of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) may be associated with atherosclerosis. The aim of the study was to examine the association between ACE gene polymorphism and coronary heart disease in Turkish type 2 diabetic patients. Methods and results - A total of 152 (97 female, 55 male) type 2 diabetic patients were included into the study. All patients underwent myocardial perfusion scintigraphic examination and forty-five of them with a perfusion defect underwent coronary angiography. Thirty-eight patients with a coronary stenosis of more than 50% on coronary angiography were considered as having coronary heart disease. The I/D polymorphism was determined by polymerase chain reaction. There was no statistically significant difference in genotypic and allelic frequencies of the ACE I/D polymorphism among patients with and without coronary heart disease (DD:ID:II (%), 32:58:11 and 39:44:17, respectively). Conclusions - ACE gene polymorphism is not a significant parameter to determine coronary heart disease in Turkish type 2 diabetic patients.