Table 1 Main characteristics of these studies included in this meta-analysis

First author	Year	Country	Ethnicity	Genotype method	Cases		Controls		*HWE*
First author	Year	Country	Ethnicity	Genotype method	Pro/ Pro	Ala-carrier	Pro/ Pro	Ala-carrier	*HWE*
Mori et al.	2001	Japanese	Asian	PCR-RFLP	580	28	982	42	Yes
Herrmann et al.	2002	German	Caucasian	PCR-RFLP	154	43	144	59	Yes
Caramori et al.	2003	Brazilian	Caucasian	PCR-RFLP	93	11	169	43	Yes
Wu et al.	2004	Chinese	Asian	PCR-RFLP	194	26	102	6	Yes
Maeda et al.	2004	Japanese	Asian	PCR-RFLP	46	15	55	24	Yes
Pollex et al.	2007	Canadian	Caucasian	PCR-RFLP	94	3	55	7	Yes
Erdogan et al.	2007	Turk	Asian	PCR-RFLP	43	0	47	1	Yes
Wei et al.	2008	Chinese	Asian	PCR-RFLP	68	14	89	10	Yes
Li et al.	2008	Chinese	Asian	PCR	150	15	77	17	Yes
Wu et al.	2009	Taiwanese	Asian	Taqman	157	18	197	17	Yes
De Cosmo et al.	2009	Italian	Caucasian	Taqman	86	7	856	170	Yes
Liu et al.	2010	Chinese	Asian	PCR-RFLP	499	33	199	29	Yes
Lapice et al.	2010	Italian	Caucasian	PCR-RFLP	53	2	606	89	Yes
Zhu et al.	2011	Chinese	Asian	PCR-RFLP	39	2	33	4	Yes
De Cosmo et al¹	2011	Italian	Caucasian	SBE	221	40	499	81	Yes
De Cosmo et al²	2011	Italian	Caucasian	Taqman	224	30	316	53	Yes
De Cosmo et al³	2011	Italian	Caucasian	ASA	207	25	422	60	Yes
Zhang et al.	2012	Indian	Asian	PCR-RFLP	113	28	206	49	Yes

PCR-RFLP: Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism; PCR: Polymerase Chain Reaction; SBE: Single-Base Extension; ASA: Allele-Specific Amplification; 1,2,3: Different studies in one publication; HWE: Hardy–Weinberg Equilibrium; Yes: P_HWE value>0.05.Reaction; SBE: Single-Base Extension; ASA: Allele-Specific Amplification; 1,2,3: Different studies in one publication; HWE: Hardy–Weinberg Equilibrium; Yes: P_HWE value>0.05.

ISSN: 1746-1596