Abstract
AIMS: To investigate whether the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) insertion/deletion (I/D), angiotensinogen M235T or angiotensin II receptor type 1 573C/T polymorphism modify the risk of atherosclerosis associated with beta-blocker or ACE-inhibitor therapy. METHODS: Data were used from the Rotterdam Study, a population-based prospective cohort study in the Netherlands, which started in 1990 and included 7983 subjects of >or= 55 years. In this study, 2216 subjects with hypertension were included. Three subclinical measurements were used for atherosclerosis, i.e. peripheral arterial disease, carotid atherosclerosis and aortic atherosclerosis. The interaction between antihypertensive drugs and genetic polymorphisms on the risk of atherosclerosis was determined with binary logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The risk of aortic atherosclerosis associated with long-term (>or=4 years) beta-blocker treatment compared with no use of beta-blockers was higher in subjects with the TT genotype than in subjects with the MM genotype of the AGT gene [synergy index (SI) = 3.36; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.14, 9.97]. The risk of carotid atherosclerosis associated with long-term ACE-inhibitor treatment compared with no use of ACE-inhibitors was lower in subjects with the TT genotype than in subjects with the MM genotype of the AGT gene (SI = 0.20; 95% CI 0.04, 0.95). CONCLUSION: Overall, the risk of atherosclerosis in hypertensives taking a beta-blocker or ACE-inhibitor-based regimen was not strongly modified by any of the three candidate gene polymorphisms.