The present invention provides compositions and methods based on genetic polymorphisms that are associated with vascular diseases such as stroke. In particular, the present invention relates to genetic polymorphisms that have utility for such uses as predicting disease risk or predicting an individual's response to a treatment such as statins, including groups of polymorphisms that may be used as a signature marker set for such uses, as well as nucleic acid molecules containing the polymorphisms, variant proteins encoded by such nucleic acid molecules, reagents for detecting the polymorphic nucleic acid molecules and proteins, and methods of using the nucleic acid and proteins as well as methods of using reagents for their detection.