Genetic Drivers of von Willebrand Factor Levels in an Ischemic Stroke Population and Association With Risk for Recurrent Stroke [Clinical Sciences]

Background and Purpose—von Willebrand factor (vWF) plays an important role in thrombus formation during cerebrovascular damage. We sought to investigate the potential role of circulating vWF in recurrent cerebrovascular events and identify genetic contributors to variation in vWF level in an ischemic stroke population.Methods—We analyzed the effect of circulating vWF on risk of recurrent stroke using survival models in the VISP trial (Vitamin Intervention for Stroke Prevention) and the use of vWF in reclassification over traditional factors. We conducted a genome-wide association study) with imputation, based on 1000 Genomes Project data, for circulating vWF levels and then interrogated loci previously associated with vWF levels. We performed expression quantitative trait locus analysis for vWF across different tissues.Results—Elevated vWF levels were associated with increased risk for recurrent stroke in VISP. Adding vWF to traditional clinical parameters also improved recurrent stroke risk prediction. We identified single-nucleotide polymorphisms significantly associated with circulating vWF at the ABO locus (P

Source: Stroke - May 22, 2017 Category: Neurology Authors: Stephen R. Williams, Fang–Chi Hsu, Keith L. Keene, Wei–Min Chen, Godfrey Dzhivhuho, Joe L. Rowles III, Andrew M. Southerland, Karen L. Furie, Stephen S. Rich, Bradford B. Worrall, Michele M. Sale Tags: Biomarkers, Cerebrovascular Disease/Stroke, Ischemic Stroke Original Contributions Source Type: research