Study subjects comprised 247 middle-age CAD patients and 316 age-, gender-, and race-matched controls; HPA genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction with sequence specific primers.
The frequencies of HPA-1b (P<.001) and HPA-2b (P<.001) alleles and HPA-1a/1b (P<.001), HPA-1b/1b (P<.001), and HPA-2a/2b (P<.001) genotypes were higher in patients than control subjects. Select HPA haplotypes comprising the HPA-1b/2a (Pc=2.2×10−4) and HPA-1b/2b (Pc=.001) haplotypes which were positively associated, and the HPA-1a/2a (Pc=3.2×10−5) which was negatively associated with CAD, confer a disease susceptibility and protective nature to these haplotypes. Multivariate analysis confirmed the positive association of HPA-1b/2a [adjusted odds ratio (aOR)=3.63; 95 % CI=2.42–5.43] and HPA-1b/2b (aOR=2.92; 95 % CI=1.43–5.94) haplotypes with CAD, after adjustment for a number of covariates.
Our results suggest that HPA-1/HPA-2 haplotypes may be considered to be a major risk factor for CAD in middle-aged Tunisians.