Effects of VKORC1 Genetic Polymorphisms on Warfarin Maintenance Dose Requirement in a Chinese Han Population

Source of support: Departmental sources Background: VKORC1 is reported to be capable of treating several diseases with thrombotic risk, such as cardiac valve re-placement. Some single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in VKORC1 are documented to be associated with clinical differences in warfarin maintenance dose. This study explored the correlations of VKORC1–1639 G/A, 1173 C/T and 497 T/G genetic polymorphisms with warfarin maintenance dose requirement in patients under-going cardiac valve replacement. Material/Methods: A total of 298 patients undergoing cardiac valve replacement were recruited. During follow-up, clinical data were recorded. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method was applied to detect VKORC1–1639 G/A, 1173 C/T and 497 T/G polymorphisms, and genotypes were analyzed. Results: Correlations between warfarin maintenance dose and baseline characteristics revealed statistical significanc-es of age, gender and operation methods with warfarin maintenance dose (all P<0.05). Warfarin maintenance dose in VKORC1–1639 G/A AG + GG carriers was obviously higher than in AA carriers (P<0.001). As compared with patients with TT genotype in VKORC1 1173 C/T, warfarin maintenance dose was apparently higher in pa-tients with CT genotype (P<0.001). Linear regression analysis revealed that gender, operation method, meth-od for heart valve replacement, as well as VKORC1–1639 G/A and 1173 C/T gene polymorphisms were signif