Comprehensive Genetic Screen No Better Than Knowing Ones Family History for Predicting Cardiovascular Risk
Summary
The genetic risk scores were then tested among 19,313 initially healthy women from the BWH-based Women’s Genome Health Study (WGHS) who were followed over a 12 year period for the development of heart attacks, stroke, the need for coronary revascularization, or cardiovascular death.“Family history brings together not only shared genetics, but also shared behaviors and environmental factors.” Dr. Paul Ridker, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at BWH and principal investigator of the WGHS added, “Understanding genetics and its role in chronic disease remains absolutely vital for developing new therapies and new approaches to treatment.Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) assessed the predictive ability of a comprehensive genetic risk score among more than 19,000 women enrolled in the BWH-based Women’s Genome Health Study.After more than a decade of follow-up, the researchers found that genetic screening offered very little beyond traditional factors such as age, blood pressure, smoking status and cholesterol.However, it is sobering to find that the current body of genetic data adds little to our ability to predict cardiovascular disease”.The Women’s Genome Health Study (WGHS) derives from the Women’s Health Study (WHS), both of which receive funding from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, the National Cancer Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, and the Leduq Foundation.