Exploring Stroke Risk through Mendelian Randomization: A Comprehensive Study Integrating Genetics and Metabolic Traits in the Korean Population

Abstract

Numerous risk factors play a role in the causation of stroke, and the cardiometabolic condition is a one of the most important. In Korea, various treatment methods are employed based on the constitutional type, which is known to differ significantly in cardiometabolic disease. In this study, we compared the estimates obtained for different groups by applying the Mendelian randomization method to investigate the causal effects of genetic characteristics on stroke, according to constitutional type. In clinical analysis, the subtypes differ significantly in diabetes or dyslipidemia. The genetic association estimates for the stroke subtype risk were obtained from MEGASTROKE, the International Stroke Genetics Consortium (ISGC), UKbiobank, and BioBank Japan (BBJ), using group-related SNPs as instrumental variables. The TE subtypes with higher risk of metabolic disease were associated with increased risk (beta = 4.190; s.e. = 1.807; p = 0.035) of cardioembolic stroke (CES), and the SE subtypes were associated with decreased risk (beta = −9.336, s.e. = 1.753; p = 3.87 × 10−5) of CES. The findings highlight the importance of personalized medicine in assessing disease risk based on an individual’s constitutional type.