Myocardial infarction, often known as heart attack, kills around 4 million people in Europe and Northern Asia each year, accounting for almost one-third of all fatalities.

Experts at the University of Maryland School of Medicine discovered a link between blood type and the risk of having a heart attack at an earlier age.

The meta-analysis included data from 48 genetic studies of ischemic stroke in people under the age of 60.

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These trials included 17,000 stroke patients and over 600,000 healthy participants in total. 

Researchers discovered a relationship between early stroke and a chromosomal region containing the gene that determined blood type (A, B, AB or O).

"Our meta-analysis looked at people’s genetic profiles and found associations between blood type and risk of early-onset stroke. The association of blood type with later-onset stroke was much weaker than what we found with early stroke," said study co-principal investigator Braxton D. Mitchell, Professor of Medicine UMSOM.
 
After accounting for gender and other factors, the researchers discovered that those with blood group A had an 18% higher risk of having an early stroke than those with other blood groups, while those with blood group O had a 12% lower risk.

However, the researchers emphasized that the increased risk was extremely modest, so persons in the A group should not be concerned about an early stroke possibility or undergo further screening.

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