A Bidirectional Mendelian Randomization Study of the Causal Association Between Ischemic Stroke, Coronary Heart Disease, and Hydrocephalus

Abstract

Background

The association among coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, and hydrocephalus remains ambiguous.

Objectives

There is a need for a Mendelian randomization study to evaluate the underlying causality between coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke, and hydrocephalus.

Methods

The data source utilized genome-wide association studies, employing a threshold of p < 5 × 10⁻⁸ to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms strongly linked to ischemic stroke and coronary heart disease as instrumental variables (IVs). Five methods—inverse variance weighted (IVW), Mendelian randomization (MR) Egger, Weighted Median, Weighted mode, and Simple mode—utilized the selected IVs to estimate the causality between ischemic stroke, coronary heart disease, and hydrocephalus.

Results

The IVW demonstrated that ischemic stroke and coronary heart disease serve as risk factors for hydrocephalus (odds ratio [OR] = 1.650, 95% CI: 1.066–2.554, p = 0.025; OR = 1.307, 95% CI: 1.023–1.668, p = 0.032). Both the MR-Egger intercept test and Cochran's Q test affirmed the relative reliability of the IVW analysis results. However, no evidence of a reverse causation was observed between hydrocephalus and coronary heart disease or ischemic stroke.

Conclusions

Coronary heart disease and Ischemic stroke may increase the risk of hydrocephalus.