Objectives: Cardiovascular diseases are responsible for almost 50% of deaths in Europe, their prevalence increases steadily with age. Besides traditional risk factors novel risk factors were revealed including increased blood viscosity, high finbrinogen, homocysteine or C-reactive protein concentration. AB0 blood groups has also been suggested to play role in risk estimation, however available data remained controversial. The aim of our study was to confirm the presumed correlation between the AB0 blood groups and the cardiovascular risk.

Methods: The data of 192 patients were analysed at the Department of Emergency Medicine of Pécs University, who required acute intervention or surgery after an acute CV event. Control population consisted of 60 healthy volunteers with negative CV history. Risk factors were assessed in both groups: distribution by age and gender, presence of obesity, smoking habits and daily physical activity. Differences were evaluated by chi-square test analyses, SPSS statistical software, version 20 (p<0,05).

Results: The proportion of individuals with blood group 0 was significantly lower (p=0.003) among patients (38.5%) than in the control group (60%). When comparing 0 and non-0 patient groups, the incidence of vascular diseases was significantly higher in the non-0 group, while the physical activity and RAAS inhibitor therapy were significantly more frequent in the 0 group (p<0.05). When comparing patients and healthy controls with blood group 0, male rate was significantly higher among patients as well as alcohol consumption and obesity, while the rate of physically actives was significantly lower in that group(p<0.05).

Conclusions: In the examined patient population CV event occurred more frequently among patients with non-0 blood group even in the absence of other risk factors. If primary preventive methods were completed with this knowledge, a more precise risk estimation might be achieved.