Abstract: Objective: To investigate the value of alcohol flushing to predict the efficacy of nitroglycerin (GTN) on angina pectoris attacks. Methods: Two hundred and thirty-one patients with coronary heart disease, who were confirmed by coronary angiography, were enrolled in this study and they were divided into two groups according to alcohol flushing: the no-flushing group (n=111) and the flushing group (n=120). The genotype of ALDH2 was determined by polymerase chain reaction and direct sequencing. Risk factors of coronary heart disease and blood routine analysis were determined. The efficacy of nitroglycerin on angina pectoris was gained by a questionnaire. Base clinical characteristics and nitroglycerin efficacy between the two groups were compared. Results: The rate of efficacious response to GTN and the ALDH2*1 genotype in the noflushing group was significantly higher than that in the flushing group (88.3% VS 39.2%, P＜0.01; 85.6% VS 41.7%, P＜0.01). The rate of efficacious response to GTN was significantly higher in patients with the ALDH2*1 genotype than in patients with the ALDH2*2 genotype (80.7% VS 32.6%, P＜0.01). Conclusion: Efficacy of GTN can be predicted by alcohol flushing, which may relate to the effect of gene polymorphisms.

Key words: Coronary heart disease, Flushing, alcohol drinking, Nitroglycerin, Aldehyde dehydrogenase2, Polymorphism, single nucleotide