Alpha globin gene copy number and incident ischemic stroke risk among Black Americans.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

People with African ancestry have greater stroke risk and greater heritability of stroke risk than people of other ancestries. Given the importance of nitric oxide (NO) in stroke, and recent evidence that alpha globin restricts nitric oxide release from vascular endothelial cells, we hypothesized that alpha globin gene (HBA) deletion would be associated with reduced risk of incident ischemic stroke.

Methods

We evaluated 8,947 participants self-reporting African ancestry in the national, prospective Reasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) cohort. Incident ischemic stroke was defined as non-hemorrhagic stroke with focal neurological deficit lasting ≥ 24 hours confirmed by the medical record or focal or non-focal neurological defici

SUBMITTER: Ruhl AP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10448705 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature