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Meta-analytical association between angiotensin-converting enzyme gene polymorphisms and sarcoidosis risk

Author(s): R. Zhu, L.Q. Bi, H. Kong, S.L. Tilley, H. Wang and W.P. Xie

Previous reports identified an association between sarcoidosis and an insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism in angiotensin-converting enzyme. Our meta-analysis of articles published between March 1996 and June 2013 identified studies in the PubMed, EMBASE, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases. We examined whether angiotensin-converting enzyme polymorphisms influence sarcoidosis susceptibility. The strength of the association between I/D polymorphisms and sarcoidosis risk was measured based on the odds ratio and 95% confidence interval. Analysis was based on recessive and dominant models. Ethnic subgroup analysis from 18 articles (1882 cases and 3066 controls) showed that DD homozygote carriers were at a slightly increased risk of sarcoidosis compared with II homozygotes and DI heterozygotes (P = 0.03). Comparison of DD plus DI vs II revealed no significant association with sarcoidosis in group and ethnic subgroup analysis. We found that the I/D polymorphism in the angiotensin-converting enzyme gene was not associated with a major risk of sarcoidosis