(HealthDay)—Genetically determined vitamin K1 is associated with coronary artery disease (CAD) and myocardial infarction (MI), according to a study published online April 8 in the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

C. Mary Schooling, Ph.D., from the CUNY School of Public Health in New York City, assessed the risk of CAD/MI according to genetically determined vitamin K1 levels. She used separate sample instrumental variable analysis with genetic instruments to obtain an unconfounded estimate of the correlation of vitamin K1 with CAD/MI using CARDIoGRAMplusC4D (64,374 cases and 130,681 controls) and with lipids using Global Lipids Genetics Consortium Results (196,475 individuals).

Schooling observed a positive association for vitamin K1 single nucleotide polymorphisms with CAD/MI (odds ratio, 1.17 per unit [nmol/L] of natural log-transformed genetically predicted vitamin K1), but not with inverse normal transformed , high-density lipoprotein, or triglycerides. The association for CAD/MI was stronger considering only rs2108622, which is functionally relevant to vitamin K1 (odds ratio, 1.21).

"Vitamin K may cause CAD/MI, whether vitamin K or other determinants of coagulants could be relevant to primary prevention might bear consideration," Schooling writes.