BLOOD GROUP ASSOCIATION WITH HEART DISEASE.

I read this interesting article. It is a simple study, on a very common subject and came out with an interesting findings. All of us have a blood group. It is our signature through life. It does not change. Well, Prof Lu Qi and colleagues of the Harvard School of Public Health looked into this issue and published their findings in the American Heart Association Journal called " Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis and Vascular Biology, Aug 14th 2012, issue. It is a prospective study. That makes it more relevant. But it is a meta-analysis of two large cohorts on follow-up at the moment, namely the Nurses Health Study, which had 62, 073 females, and the Health Professional Follow-up study which had 27,428 males. These are two very large cohorts. They followed them for 20 years, and kept their records to see how many of them developed Coronary artery disease in the 20years. Interestingly, they found that those with AB blood type ( the rarest ) had a 23% increase risk of developing CAD over the 20 years, when compared to the most common O blood group. There was an 11% increase risk with the B blood group and a 5% increase risk with the A blood group.
I am not sure how to explain this. It is a strong and significant association.
I suppose the message that I get is that, people with the AB blood group should have to be more careful with coronary risk preventive measures, knowing that they have a 25% increase risk. I am not prepared to say that O blood group should ignore coronary risk preventive measures. I suppose, if you have AB blood group, with T2DM and hypertension, then the likelihood of CAD will be high. I suppose, one can consider that this is where family background comes in. afterall, blood group is genetically determined. I am however, not sure if they will add ABO blood group into the Framingham Score.
Interesting study of a simple parameter. Thank God, my blood group is O.