Mendelian randomization analysis to characterize causal association between coronary artery disease and COVID-19

  1. Lang Wu
  2. Jingjing Zhu
  3. Chong Wu

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Abstract

Observational studies have suggested that having coronary artery disease increases the risk of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) susceptibility and severity, but it remains unclear if this association is causal. Inferring causation is critical to facilitate the development of appropriate policies and/or individual decisions to reduce the incidence and burden of COVID-19. We applied Two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis and found that genetically predicted CAD was significantly associated with higher risk of COVID-19: the odds ratio was 1.29 (95% confidence interval 1.11 to 1.49; P = 0.001) per unit higher log odds of having CAD.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.29.20117309: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Limitations of the current study include 1) the overlap of relatively small samples in both GWAS of CAD and COVID-19; and 2) mixed population composition in both GWAS of CAD and COVID-19. Because BioMe only contributed a relatively small sample size to the COVID-19 GWAS: 20 (1.1%) cases and 10,169 (1.5%) controls, the potential influence of this on the MR estimate should be small. In both GWAS of CAD and COVID-19, a majority of the subjects are Europeans. In summary, an MR study could potentially avoid many biases and confounding issues existing in conventional observational studies and thus help to identify causally related risk factors. Using MR design, we found evidence that having CAD is associated with a higher risk of COVID-19. Therefore, particular attention should be given to individuals with CAD during this pandemic and we expect that this finding will facilitate appropriate policymaking and individual decisions to reduce COVID-19 burden.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

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  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.05.29.20117309v1 on medRxiv