A sequence variant in ZFHX3 on 16q22 associates with atrial fibrillation and ischemic stroke

Abstract
Daniel Gudbjartsson and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for atrial fibrillation, a condition associated with increased risk of stroke. They report a variant in ZFHX3 associated with atrial fibrillation as well as ischemic stroke. We expanded our genome-wide association study on atrial fibrillation (AF) in Iceland, which previously identified risk variants on 4q25, and tested the most significant associations in samples from Iceland, Norway and the United States. A variant in the ZFHX3 gene on chromosome 16q22, rs7193343-T, associated significantly with AF (odds ratio OR = 1.21, P = 1.4 × 10−10). This variant also associated with ischemic stroke (OR = 1.11, P = 0.00054) and cardioembolic stroke (OR = 1.22, P = 0.00021) in a combined analysis of five stroke samples.