Role of angiotensin-converting enzyme insertion/deletion polymorphism in sudden cardiac arrest.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism and to understand sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in the Chinese population. METHODS: In this study, 232 patients were divided into the SCA group and the coronary disease group with coronary disease, but no SCA occurred during the treatment period. After comparing the genotype frequencies of the two groups, all patients were further divided into three groups as the II homozygotes, ID heterozygotes, and DD homozygotes to investigate the relationship in ACE I/D polymorphism and other risk factors of SCA. RESULTS: The frequencies of DD genotype in the SCA group were significantly higher than the coronary disease group, as well as the D allele frequencies in the SCA group were high when compared with the coronary disease group. According to the genotypes of the ACE I/D polymorphism, the distribution of patients' characteristics had no significant differences among all the characteristics. Both, the patients who survived SCA, with II genotype and the ones who died of SCA, with DD genotype had significant higher percentages. CONCLUSION: The DD genotype was associated with a higher prevalence of SCA and might be a risk factor of survival rate in sudden cardiac death.