Why are you studying Tetralogy of Fallot?
There are several ways one could go about trying to work out the genetic changes that contribute to congenital heart disease. One could group all types of congenital heart disease together but it is likely that that the genes important in one type of congenital heart disease will be less important in another type even if there is some overlap. We think it gives us a better chance of identifying the important factors if we start with a group of people who all have the same condition. Dr Farrell (the statistician in the team) worked out we need approximately a thousand cases to identify the genetic changes important for a particular heart defect. We chose to start with Tetralogy of Fallot because it is an important condition and it is common enough that it is feasible to collect a thousand cases. If we are successful in identifying the genetic factors contributing to Tetralogy of Fallot it demonstrates this approach works and we can extend our studies to other types of congenital heart d
