Total impact of oxidative stress genes on cardiovascular events – 7-year follow-up study

Abstract Cardiovascular (CV) events are the number one cause of lifetime disability and deaths worldwide. It is well known that traditional risk factors do not fully correlate with clinical outcomes; therefore, searching for other markers that would explain CV events occurrence seems essential. Of importance, one of the main factors at the origin of CV events is oxidative stress, causing inflammation and atherosclerotic plaque instability. Therefore the present study was conducted to evaluate eight carefully selected genetic polymorphisms related to oxidative stress as risk modifiers for CV events. A cohort of 1020 patients with coronary atherosclerosis was analysed in a 7-year follow-up observational study. The following endpoints were assessed: CV death, myocardial infarction (MI) and a combined endpoint of CV death/MI/stroke. Our results show that single polymorphisms are not significant cardiovascular disease risk factors, but genetic risk score (GRS), defined as the accumulation of our eight studied polymorphisms, was significantly associated with the three studied follow-up endpoints. In conclusion, when regarding CV events, GRS investigated here can become clinically meaningful and undoubtedly adds to the knowledge in stratifying the risk of CV events.