BACKGROUNDNitroglycerin (NTG) is one of the few immediate treatments for acute angina. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) is a key enzyme in the human body that facilitates the biological metabolism of NTG. The biological mechanism of NTG serves an important function in NTG efficacy. Some reports still contradict the results that the correlation between ALDH2 gene polymorphisms and NTG and its clinical efficacy is different. However, data on NTG measurement by pain relief are subjective. This study aimed to investigate the influence of ALDH2 gene polymorphism on intervention with sublingual NTG using noninvasive hemodynamic parameters of cardiac output (CO) and systemic vascular resistance (SVR) in Northern Chinese Han population.

METHODSThis study selected 559 patients from the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University. A total of 203 patients presented with coronary heart disease (CHD) and 356 had non-CHD (NCHD) cases. All patient ALDH2 genotypes (G504A) were detected and divided into two types: Wild (GG) and mutant (GA/AA). Among the CHD group, 103 were wild-type cases, and 100 were mutant-type cases. Moreover, 196 cases were wild-type, and 160 cases were mutant type among the NCHD volunteers. A noninvasive hemodynamic detector was used to monitor the CO and the SVR at the 0, 5, and 15 minute time points after medication with 0.5 mg sublingual NTG. Two CO and SVR indicators were used for a comparative analysis of all case genotypes.

RESULTSBoth CO and SVR indicators significantly differed between the wild and mutant genotypes at various time points after intervention with sublingual NTG at 5 and 15 minutes in the NCHD (F = 16.460, 15.003, P = 0.000, 0.000) and CHD groups (F = 194.482, 60.582, P = 0.000, 0.000). All CO values in the wild-type case of both NCHD and CHD groups increased, whereas those in the mutant type decreased. The CO and ΔCO differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05; P < 0.05). The SVR and ΔSVR changed between the wild- and mutant-type cases at all-time points in both NCHD and CHD groups had statistically significant differences (P < 0.05; P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONALDH2 (G504A) gene polymorphism is associated with changes in noninvasive hemodynamic parameters (i.e. CO and SVR) after intervention with sublingual NTG. This gene polymorphism may influence the effect of NTG intervention on Northern Chinese Han population.