Objective: Carotid artery disease (CAD) is a type of cardiovascular disease typically caused by the formation of atheroscle-rotic plaques in the carotid arteries. Diabetes mellitus, hereditary features, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension are significant risk factors for CAD. There is strong evidence of a relationship between these major risk factors and the ABO blood groups. The aim of this retrospective study was to examine a potential relationship between the ABO blood groups and CAD.
Materials and Methods: The study group comprised 230 consecutive patients diagnosed with CAD using carotid an-giography between January 2012 and November 2019 and 136 consecutive subjects without CAD as controls. The data analyzed were collected from patient files: details of demographic characteristics, lipid profiles (total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, high-density lipoprotein, very-low-density lipoprotein, and triglyceride levels), and hematological indices (leuko-cyte, platelet, hemoglobin, mean platelet volume, neutrophil, lymphocyte, monocyte values).
Results: Chi-squared test analysis indicated that there was a statistically significant difference between the distribution of the blood groups in the patient and control groups (p=0.017). Multiple logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the risk of developing CAD was 1.92 times higher in the non-O blood groups than in the O blood group (p=0.032).
Conclusion: A non-O blood group may be another risk factor for CAD. However, the blood group must be evaluated along-side established risk factors to fully understand the risk of developing CAD.