The relationship between angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene polymorphism and type I aortic dissection was examined in 205 unrelated hypertensives. A total of 94 patients underwent emergency repair due to type I aortic dissection, confirmed by computed tomography, and the remaining 111 were controls. Polymerase chain reaction was used to confirm that ACE gene polymorphism was due to insertion (I) or deletion (D) of a 287 base pair (bp) DNA sequence within intron 16. The genotype distribution and allele frequency of ACE I/D polymorphism between patients and controls were not statistically significant. When the frequency of at least one D allele carrier (DD or ID genotype) was compared with the II homozygous genotype, there was also no significant difference between the study groups. The findings revealed no association between ACE I/D polymorphism and aortic dissection. We conclude that I/D mutation of the ACE gene does not seem to be a risk factor for aortic dissection.
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