Prevalence of the prothrombin G20210A mutation among ischemic stroke patients

When brain cells die during a stroke, the abilities controlled by the affected area of the brain such as memory, speech and muscle control will be lost.3 The main risk factors for ischemic stroke are age, sex, family history, race, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes mellitus, obesity, smoking and genetics factors.4,5 Prothrombin is a 72 kDa vitamin K-dependent glycoprotein formed in the liver,6 it's a precursor of the serine protease thrombin and play a significant role in the process of hemostasis and thrombosis.7 Prothrombin gene mutation G20210A is a common prothrombotic singlenucleotide polymorphism.8 The polymorphism is located in a noncoding region of the prothrombin gene, replacing guanine (G) with adenine (A) at nucleotide position 20210 in the 3'-untranslated region of the prothrombin gene.9,10 The G20210A polymorphism is associated with high levels of d-dimer11 and elevated plasma prothrombin concentrations and approximately a three-fold increased risk of thrombosis, atrial fibrillation,12 myocardial infarction13 and cerebral venous thrombosis.14,15 This mutation has not been detected among Kurdish patients to date. [...]to fill this gap, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of prothrombin gene G20210A mutation in incidences of ischemic stroke in Erbil city. GeNet Bio DNA extraction kit (GeNet Bio, Korea) was used for the isolation of genomic DNA from the blood samples, and the purity and the concentration of the extracted DNA samples were measured by NanoDrop® ND-1000 Spectrophotometer (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Germany) and checked by 1% agarose gel electrophoresis.16 PCR/RFLP analysis The mutation analysis for prothrombin gene G20210A was assessed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The absence of a genetic risk factor for ischemic stroke among Kurdish people may be due to the difference in the geographical location and ethnic background.9 In conclusion, the G20210A prothrombin gene variant is not associated with increased risk, incidence and pathogenesis of ischemic stroke in Hawler city. [...]this study recommends that the genotype documentation of prothrombin gene G20210A mutation is not desirable for patients with ischemic stroke in this region. The limitation of this study is a low sample size. [...]we recommend to increase the number of patients and including other prothrombin related gene.