Objective: To study on the association of the insertion(I)/deletion(D) polymorphism of the angiotensin-converting enzyme gene intron 16 (ACE/ID) and essential hypertension(EH) in Chinese population by the means of meta-analysis.
Methods: Odds ratios of ACE/ID genotype distributions in EH patients against healthy control were analysed. All the relevant studies were identified, poor-qualified studies were eliminated, and the risk of publication bias was excluded. The meta-analysis software, REVMAN3.1, was applied for investigating heterogeneity among individual studies and summarising effects across studies.
Results: A total of 1,612 cases and 1,710 controls from 18 studies were included. No heterogeneity among the studies has been found. The frequencies of the ACE DD, ID and II genotypes were 23%, 41%, and 36% in cases and 19%, 46% and 35% in controls respectively. The pooled odds ratio (with 95% CI) of DD vs ID + II is 1.37(1.15-1.63) (P < 0.01), while the pooled odds ratio of II vs ID + DD is 0.96 (0.83-1.12) (P > 0.05).
Conclusion: In Chinese population (mainly the Hans), DD genotype is associated with the increased risk of EH.