Cerebral atherosclerosis vascular stenosis is a common etiology for ischemic stroke and a major factor in recurrent stroke and vascular mortality. Recent studies suggest that renalase plays a role in hypertension and ischemic stroke, and may be involved in atherosclerosis. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether there were correlations between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the renalase gene and severity of intracranial cerebral atherosclerotic vascular stenosis in ischemic stroke patients as determined by imaging. A total of 212 ischemic stroke patients and 244 healthy controls from the north Chinese Han population were enrolled in this study. Polymerase chain reaction and ligase detection reaction were used for SNP analysis. We classified the case samples by severity of the intracranial cerebral atherosclerotic vascular stenosis. Allele, genotype, and haplotype were analyzed in cases and controls, and logistic regression was used to adjust for bias due to conventional stroke risk factors. The allele and the genotype of rs10887800 in the renalase gene were both associated with severe intracranial cerebral atherosclerotic vascular stenosis (p = 0.013 and p = 0.049, respectively). No association was observed with severity for SNP rs2576178 or SNP rs2296545. Our findings show that the SNP rs10887800 in the renalase gene is closely associated with severe intracranial cerebral atherosclerotic vascular stenosis in ischemic stroke patients of north Chinese Han origin.