Association of ABO Blood Types With Atherosclerosis Risk Factors and Number of Involved Coronary Arteries

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality. The relationship between ABO blood groups and main risk factors of CVD is unknown. So this study was designed to investigate whether there is an association between ABO blood groups and cardiovascular risk factors in otherwise healthy people. In this cross-sectional study, risk factors for CVD were screened in 300 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) who were hospitalized in Madani hospital (biggest heart center in Tabriz) in 2013-2014 and evaluated by a questionnaire that aimed to extract information about age, sex, smoking, blood group type, weight, height, blood pressure, diabetes mellitus and family history of CVD. Data were analyzed with SPSS 17. Of the total selected 300 patients, 69.3% were male, 35.3% were smoker, 61% were hypertensive, 30.3% were diabetic mellitus, 31% had hyperlipidemia, 70.97% were obese and 17.3% had family history of CVD. The mean age was 62.06 ± 11.40 years. Blood groups O (28%), A (43.3%), B (19%) and AB (7.3%) were the most frequent ones, respectively. According to our results, we found that the rate of CAD in individuals with the blood group A was higher than the other blood groups. Regarding the risk factors, however, no significant difference was observed between the blood groups. A correlation was found between blood group A and the incidence of CAD and there was no significant difference between the blood groups and cardiovascular risk factors and number of involved coronary arteries.