Case control analyses under a log-additive model were performed using SNPTEST v1.1.5 adjusting for gender. A list of independent loci was generated using the clumping procedure implemented in PLINK, whereby loci were considered to be independent if the pair-wise linkage disequilibrium (LD, r2) was less than 0.1 and if they were at least 500kb from the index SNP. Manual inspection of cluster plots was carried out to eliminate spurious associations due to poor genotyping prior to selecting variants for follow-up genotyping. Replication analysis was performed in Stata 11 (see URLs). Power calculations were performed using Quanto v 1.2.3 (see URLs) using the effect size estimate and control effect allele frequency from the validation stage.
