Background and purpose: The occurrence of intracranial aneurysms and of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage are influenced by genetic factors. Recent genomic studies in Japan have defined 3 chromosomal loci and 1 haplotype of elastin polymorphisms as important risk factors, both for affected sib pairs and sporadic patients.
Methods: We have genotyped 2 single nucleotide polymorphisms in the elastin gene and evaluated their allelic association with intracranial aneurysm in a Central European sample of 30 familial and 175 sporadic patients and 235 population controls.
Results: We found no allelic association between this elastin polymorphism haplotype and intracranial aneurysm.
Conclusions: Our data probably reflect increased genetic heterogeneity of intracranial aneurysm in Europe compared with Japan.