Original ContributionsIncreased D allele frequency of the angiotensin-converting enzyme gene in pulmonary fibrosis
Section snippets
Patient selection
A total of 24 patients who presented to Ohio State University Medical Center from the years 1992 to 2000 for open lung biopsy with a clinical history of interstitial lung disease were selected. All lung biopsies were reviewed independent of clinical findings, with the exception of a history of interstitial lung disease (C.M.). Histologic classification was based on previously published criteria for interstitial pneumonias.1 Patients with histopathologic diagnoses consistent with UIP or NSIP
Patient information
The average age of all patients was 59 years, with a range of 35 to 76 years and a median of 55 years. There were 16 women and 8 men in the population studied; the average age for women was 55 years and for men was 60 years. All patients, to the best of our knowledge were of American Caucasian origin. The duration of symptoms from onset to to open lung biopsy was an average of 22 months for all patients, with a range of 6 to 120 months and a median of 12 months. The histopathologic diagnosis
Discussion
In this study of individuals with interstitial pneumonia and moderate to severe pulmonary fibrosis, we found the incidence of the D allele to be 69.0% and of the I allele to be 31.0%. Individuals with the D/D genotype represented 42.0% of the study population, and those with the I/D and I/I genotype represented 21.0% and 4.0%, respectively. The distribution of the D/D, I/D, and I/I genotypes of these 24 patients was not significantly different from historical controls (P =.1; χ2 test); there
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dennis K. Pearl, PhD, for his help with the statistical analysis and Dr Saul Suster for reviewing the surgical pathology specimens and selection of representative sections for illustration.
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