The roles of vascular endothelial growth factor gene polymorphisms in congenital heart diseases: a meta-analysis.

We performed this study to better elucidate the correlations between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene polymorphisms and congenital heart diseases (CHD). Eligible articles were searched in PubMed, Medline, Embase and CNKI. Eighteen studies were finally included in our meta-analysis. A significant association with the risk of CHD was detected for the rs1570360 polymorphism in additive comparison in overall analyses. Further subgroup analyses according to ethnicity of study participants and type of disease demonstrated that the rs833061 polymorphism was significantly correlated with the risk of CHD in Asians under additive genetic model, and the rs3025039 polymorphism was significantly correlated with the risk of Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) in dominant, recessive and allele models. In conclusion, our findings indicated that rs1570360 and rs833061 polymorphisms may affect the risk of CHD. In addition, the rs3025039 polymorphism may serve as a genetic biomarker of TOF.