The purpose of this study is to establish whether ABO blood group is related to coronary heart disease in an individual in Asian Indian Bengali population of eastern part of India. Two hundred and fifty (250) CHD patients and two hundred and fifty (250) age and sex matched healthy subjects were enrolled in the study. ABO blood group distribution in patients was compared with control group. Frequency of major cardiac risk factors was determined to find any correlation between blood groups and cardiovascular risk factors. The distribution of ABO blood groups in patients versus control group was A in 24.00 versus 21.60%, B in 30.80 versus 32.40%, O in 38.40 versus 21.60%, and AB in 6.80 versus 24.40%. The analysis showed significant difference in frequency of O (OR = 1.857, 95%CI = 1.112–3.100, P = 0.018) and AB (OR = 0.447, 95%CI = 0.227–0.882, P = 0.020) blood group between healthy controls and CHD individuals. Our results may suggest that the AB blood group decreases the risk of CHD in healthy controls, and it might be due to the higher concentration of high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), while the O blood group increases the risk of CHD due to lower HDL-c levels in Bengali population of eastern part of India.

Our findings suggest that the polymorphisms apo AI MspI and apo B EcoRI do not seem to affect CAD. But the genotype with E4 allele of apo E gene independent of other risk factors is associated with this disease.