Abstract
Context
It has been suggested that total blood homocysteine concentrations are associated with the risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD).
Objective
To asses the relationship between homocysteine concentrations and the risk of CVD.
Data Sources
MEDLINE was searched for systematic reviews published from 01.01.2000 to 13.05.2004. We used the MEDLINE search key words (MeSH) words homocysteine AND cardiovascular diseases .
MEDLINE was also searched for randomised controlled trials (RCT) from 01.01.2000 to 20.05.2004 with the same MeSH keywords, for the purpose of including the latest results.
Study Selection
We included studies if they had the proper study design and outcome measures. We excluded studies with deviating populations or studies that did not fulfill our standards.
Data Extraction
Data from 9 meta-analysis and 4 RCTs were included. We did a quality analysis of the studies and then compared the results.
Conclusions
All the 9 meta-analysis conclude that there is an association between homocysteine and CVD, however whether the association is causal or not is yet to be decided.
The 4 RCTs conclude that the reduction of homocysteine has a small effect on the risk of CVD, but that there still may be an association.
All the authors of the meta-analysis and RCTs are awaiting the results of further studies before drawing any final conclusions.