Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have not consistently detected replicable genetic risk factors for ischemic stroke, potentially due to etiological heterogeneity of this trait. We performed GWAS of ischemic stroke and a major ischemic stroke subtype (large artery atherosclerosis, LAA) using 1,162 ischemic stroke cases (including 421 LAA cases) and 1,244 population controls from Australia. Evidence for a genetic influence on ischemic stroke risk was detected, but this influence was higher and more significant for the LAA subtype. We identified a new LAA susceptibility locus on chromosome 6p21.1 (rs556621: odds ratio (OR) = 1.62, P = 3.9 × 10-8) and replicated this association in 1,715 LAA cases and 52,695 population controls from 10 independent population cohorts (meta-analysis replication OR = 1.15, P = 3.9 × 10-4; discovery and replication combined OR = 1.21, P = 4.7 × 10-8). This study identifies a genetic risk locus for LAA and shows how analyzing etiological subtypes may better identify genetic risk alleles for ischemic stroke.

doi.org/10.1038/ng.2397, hdl.handle.net/1765/59550
Nature Genetics
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

Holliday, E., Maguire, J., Evans, T.-J., Koblar, S., Jannes, J., Sturm, J., … Attia, J. (2012). Common variants at 6p21.1 are associated with large artery atherosclerotic stroke. Nature Genetics, 44(10), 1147–1151. doi:10.1038/ng.2397