Background: The effect of genetic variants on aspirin resistance (AR) remains controversial. We sought to assess the association of genetic variants with AR and early clinical outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke (IS).
Methods: A total of 850 acute IS patients were consecutively enrolled. Platelet aggregation was measured before and after a 7-10 day aspirin treatment. The sequences of 14 variants of COX-1, COX-2, GPIb, GPIIIa, P2Y1 and P2Y12 were determined using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry. Gene-gene interactions were analyzed using generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (GMDR). The primary outcome was early neurological deterioration (END) within 10 days of admission. The secondary outcome was a composite of early recurrent ischemic stroke (ERIS), myocardial infarction (MI) and death within 10 days of admission.
Results: 175 (20.6%) patients were AR, 45 (5.3%) were aspirin semi-resistant, 121 (14.2%) developed END, 17 (0.2%) had ERIS, 2 (0.2%) died, and 6 (0.7%) had MI. Single locus analysis indicated that only rs1371097 was associated with AR. However, GMDR analysis indicated that the following three sets of gene-gene interactions were significantly associated with AR: rs20417CC/rs1371097TT/rs2317676GG; rs20417CC/rs1371097TT/rs2317676GG; rs20417CC/rs1371097CT/rs2317676AG. END occurred significantly more frequently in patients with AR or high-risk interactive genotypes. Moreover, AR and high-risk interactive genotypes were independently associated with END.
Conclusion: Sensitivity of IS patients to aspirin and END may be multifactorial and is not significantly associated with a single gene polymorphism. Combinational analysis may useful for further insight into the genetic risks for AR.
Keywords: Aspirin resistance; Early neurological deterioration; Genetic variants; Ischemic stroke; Polymorphism.