polymorphism increases the susceptibility to pediatric ischemic stroke: meta-analysis of the 822 cases and 1,552 controls Beata Sarecka-Hujar • Ilona Kopyta •

Abstract The 677C[T polymorphism within methyle-netetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene is related to an elevated level of homocysteine. Thus it may be considered as a genetic risk factor in ischemic stroke. Apparently studies of this type of polymorphism in childhood stroke have shown conflicting results. We performed meta-anal-ysis of all the data that are available in relation with MTHFR polymorphism and the risk of ischemic stroke in children. We searched PubMed (last search dated Decem-ber 2010) using ‘‘MTHFR polymorphism’’, ‘‘ischemic stroke’ ’ ‘‘child’’, ‘‘children’’, ‘‘pediatric stroke’ ’ as key-words and reference lists of studies and reviews on the topic. Finally, 15 case–control studies corresponded to the inclusion criteria for meta-analysis. These studies involved the total number of 822 children and adolescents after ischemic stroke and 1,552 control subjects. Fixed or ran-dom effects models were used depending on the hetero-geneity between the studies. The association between ischemic stroke and 677C[T polymorphism within MTHFR gene was observed in three of the studies. The pooled analysis showed that TT genotype of MTHFR gene is more common in stroke patients than in controls (p = 0.0402, odds ratio = 1.57, 95 % confidence interval 1.02–2.41). The Egger’s test did not reveal presence of a publication bias. The results based on a sizeable group of cases and controls have proved that the 677C[T poly-morphism in MTHFR gene is associated with the devel-opment of ischemic stroke in children