Association between hemostasis and acute mesenteric ischemia: a Mendelian randomization analysis

Abstract

Background: Hemostatic abnormality has been observed in patients with acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) but causal effects of hemostatic factors on AMI are still not clear. Methods: We performed a two-sample Mendelian randomization(MR) analyses using summary-level genome-wide association study (GWAS) data to explore the potential causal effects of 23 hemostatic factors on acute mesenteric ischemia. Results: Statistically significant association between genetically determined plasminogen levels and acute mesenteric ischemia were observed. A genetically predicted one SD increase of plasma plasminogen was associated with an odds ratio of 0.41(95% confidence interval [CI] 0.24 to 0.68, P = 0.0007). Sensitivity analysis of weighted median method also supported the result of main analysis. Other hemostatic factors in this study were not shown to have significant associations with AMI. Conclusion: Genetically decreased blood level of plasminogen was causally associated with genetically predicted risk of AMI. Our result suggested potential causal roles hemostatic factors in the susceptibility and pathogenesis of AMI.