Association Between Premorbid Body Mass Index and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: Causal Inference Through Genetic Approaches.

ABSTRACT: Purpose: Inverse association between premorbid body mass index (BMI) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) was implied in observational studies; however, whether this association is causal remains largely unknown. Materials and Methods: We first conducted a meta-analysis to investigate whether there exits an association between premorbid BMI and ALS. We then employed a two-sample Mendelian randomization approach to evaluate the causal relationship of genetically increased BMI with the risk of ALS. The Mendelian randomization analysis was implemented using summary statistics for independent instruments obtained from large-scale genome-wide association studies of BMI (up to ~770,000 individuals) and ALS (up to ~81,000 individuals). The causal effect of BMI on ALS was estimate

SUBMITTER: Zeng P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6543002 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature