Association Of ABO Blood Group With Coronary Atherosclerosis – An Autopsy Based Cross Sectional Study Conducted In A Tertiary Care Hospital

The incidence of the cases of sudden unexpected deaths due to cardiovascular causes are readily increasing worldwide. The coronary arterial heart disease is considered to be epidemic in India. Previous literatures show that ABO blood group is an inherent risk factor for the development of coronary atherosclerosis apart from the conventional risk factors. The present study was conducted during the one year period from June 2022 to April 2023 with a sample size of 100 cases aged 25 to 50years whose hearts were examined by routine techniques and blood grouping done slide agglutination technique. It showed that there was a statistically significant association between the ABO blood group and coronary atherosclerosis with p-value of 0.012. In general, the non-O blood group especially the blood group-A had higher risk for coronary atherosclerosis when compared to the O-blood group individuals. As this incidence occurs at a much younger age group, it is recommended that the screening for coronary atherosclerosis should begin at a much younger age especially by including the screening for ABO blood group apart from the conventional risk factors as blood group A had higher risk. Further, this study also opens up the gate for genetic studies in future in order to understand the exact association between ABO blood group and the coronary atherosclerosis at the gene level in detail.