Of the eight candidate genes studied, three were associated with ischaemic stroke: the angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE) insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism with a mean OR of 1.90 (95% CI 1.23–2.93) in the Chinese and 1.74 (95% CI 0.88–3.42) in the Japanese; the summary OR for the C677T variant of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) was 1.18 (95% CI 0.90–1.56) in Chinese and 1.34 (95% CI 0.87–2.06) in Koreans; and the pooled OR for the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene was 2.18 (95% CI 1.52–3.13) in Chinese and 1.51 (95% CI 0.93–2.45) in Japanese. Here, MTHFR is linked to ischemic stroke.