Four SNPS on chromosome 9p21 confer risk to premature, familial CAD and MI in an American Caucasian population (GeneQuest).

Genome-wide association studies have separately identified four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 9p21 that confer susceptibility to coronary artery disease (CAD) and myocardial infarction (MI). This study presents the first analysis of these SNPs (rs10757274, rs2383206, rs2383207, and rs10757278) in a premature, familial CAD/MI population (GeneQuest). We performed a case-control analysis of the GeneQuest Caucasian population with 310 cases with premature CAD and MI (average age at onset of 40.3 +/- 5.1) and 560 non-CAD controls to determine if these SNPs are associated with risk of CAD using both the population-based and family-based association study designs. The four SNPs are significantly associated with premature and familial MI and CAD in the GeneQuest Caucasian population (allelic P= 6.61 x 10(-7) to 1.87 x 10(-8)). Sib-TDT analysis showed that three of the four SNPs could confer significant susceptibility to premature CAD and MI. These results indicate that the four SNPs on chromosome 9p21 are also associated with premature, familial CAD.