OBJECTIVETo evaluate the correlation between the beta-fibrinogen gene-455G/A polymorphism and cerebral infarction in Chinese population by means of meta-analysis.

METHODSGenetic association studies on evaluating the beta-fibrinogen gene -455G/A polymorphism and cerebral infarction involving Chinese population published before December 2005 were collected from database of PubMed, EMBASE, and CNKI. All the data in literature were abstracted based on the defined selection criteria by two independent investigators. Publication bias was tested by funnel plot and the odd ratios of all studies were combined dependent on the result of heterogeneity test among the individual studies. The software Review Manager (Version 4.2) was used for meta-analysis.

RESULTSEleven studies including 1405 patients and 1600 controls met the selection criteria. There was no publication bias in 11 reviewed studies. Heterogeneity test of reviewed studies showed statistically significant differences (chi2=24.58, P=0.006) among the ORs of individual studies. The combined OR of 11 studies of susceptibility to cerebral infarction in -455A allele carriers compared with the -455G/G wild homozygotes was 1.33 (95%CI 1.04-1.71, P=0.02). In the patients with cerebral infarction in 6 studies, the summarized average plasma fibrinogen level of allele A carrier was 0.29 g/L (95%CI 0.14-0.44, P=0.0002) higher than that of -455G/G homozygous ones.

CONCLUSIONSbeta-fibrinogen gene -455G/A polymorphism might contribute to susceptibility of cerebral infarction in Chinese population; allele A increases the individual susceptibility to the disease.