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Alcohol consumption and subclinical and clinical coronary heart disease
The potential effect of alcohol consumption on coronary heart disease remains unclear. A research team used the variant rs671 in the aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 gene (ALDH2) as an instrument to investigate the causal role of alcohol intake in subclinical and clinical coronary heart disease.
Two Mendelian randomization studies were conducted: a cross-sectional study of coronary artery calcification (CAC) on computed tomography of 1,029 healthy men (mean age, 63.8 years) and a case-control study of 421 men with coronary heart disease [acute coronary syndrome (ACS) or stable angina pectoris] who underwent coronary revascularization, a procedure or surgery to improve blood flow to the heart, and 842 age-matched male controls.
In the CAC study, medians (25%tiles, 75%tiles) of alcohol consumption by ALDH2-rs671 *2 homozygotes [n = 86 (8.4%)], *1*2 heterozygotes [n = 397 (38.5%)], and *1 homozygotes [n = 546 (53.1%)] were 0.0 (0.0, 0.0), 28.0 (0.0, 129.0), and 224.0 (84.0, 350.0) g/week, respectively. Compared with *2 homozygotes, relative risks for prevalent CAC score >0, ≥100, and ≥300 in *1 homozygotes were 1.29 (95% confidence interval, 1.06-1.57), 1.76 (1.05-2.96), and 1.81 (0.80-4.09), respectively. Higher odds were observed among *1 homozygotes [odds ratio, 2.19 (1.39-3.46)] and even among *1*2 heterozygotes [1.77 (1.11-2.82)] compared with *2 homozygotes. In the case-control study revealed a lower prevalence of *1 homozygotes among men with coronary heart disease [odds ratio, 0.54 (0.35-0.82)], especially ACS [0.46 (0.27-0.77)], than controls.
The findings indicate a positive association of alcohol consumption with coronary artery calcification burden but an inverse association with clinical coronary heart disease, especially acute coronary syndrome.
Source: Takashi Hisamatsu, Katsuyuki Miura, Yasuharu Tabara, Yuichi Sawayama, Takashi Kadowaki, Aya Kadota, Sayuki Torii, Keiko Kondo, Yuichiro Yano, Akira Fujiyoshi, Takashi Yamamoto, Yoshihisa Nakagawa, Minoru Horie, Takeshi Kimura, Tomonori Okamura, Hirotsugu Ueshima, for the SESSA and ACCESS Research Groups. Alcohol consumption and subclinical and clinical coronary heart disease: a Mendelian randomization analysis, European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, Volume 29, Issue 15, October 2022, Pages 2006–2014, doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwac156.
Two Mendelian randomization studies were conducted: a cross-sectional study of coronary artery calcification (CAC) on computed tomography of 1,029 healthy men (mean age, 63.8 years) and a case-control study of 421 men with coronary heart disease [acute coronary syndrome (ACS) or stable angina pectoris] who underwent coronary revascularization, a procedure or surgery to improve blood flow to the heart, and 842 age-matched male controls.
In the CAC study, medians (25%tiles, 75%tiles) of alcohol consumption by ALDH2-rs671 *2 homozygotes [n = 86 (8.4%)], *1*2 heterozygotes [n = 397 (38.5%)], and *1 homozygotes [n = 546 (53.1%)] were 0.0 (0.0, 0.0), 28.0 (0.0, 129.0), and 224.0 (84.0, 350.0) g/week, respectively. Compared with *2 homozygotes, relative risks for prevalent CAC score >0, ≥100, and ≥300 in *1 homozygotes were 1.29 (95% confidence interval, 1.06-1.57), 1.76 (1.05-2.96), and 1.81 (0.80-4.09), respectively. Higher odds were observed among *1 homozygotes [odds ratio, 2.19 (1.39-3.46)] and even among *1*2 heterozygotes [1.77 (1.11-2.82)] compared with *2 homozygotes. In the case-control study revealed a lower prevalence of *1 homozygotes among men with coronary heart disease [odds ratio, 0.54 (0.35-0.82)], especially ACS [0.46 (0.27-0.77)], than controls.
The findings indicate a positive association of alcohol consumption with coronary artery calcification burden but an inverse association with clinical coronary heart disease, especially acute coronary syndrome.
Source: Takashi Hisamatsu, Katsuyuki Miura, Yasuharu Tabara, Yuichi Sawayama, Takashi Kadowaki, Aya Kadota, Sayuki Torii, Keiko Kondo, Yuichiro Yano, Akira Fujiyoshi, Takashi Yamamoto, Yoshihisa Nakagawa, Minoru Horie, Takeshi Kimura, Tomonori Okamura, Hirotsugu Ueshima, for the SESSA and ACCESS Research Groups. Alcohol consumption and subclinical and clinical coronary heart disease: a Mendelian randomization analysis, European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, Volume 29, Issue 15, October 2022, Pages 2006–2014, doi.org/10.1093/eurjpc/zwac156.
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