Why is understanding inherited risk important for MI?
Coronary heart disease and MI have long been recognized to have well defined risk factors such as smoking, overweight, lack of exercise, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, and hypertension. Still some individuals are more susceptible to developing coronary heart disease and MI than others, even after accounting for shared lifestyle and health factors. This differential is the hallmark of the impact of genetic risk factors. The risk variant on chromosome 9p21 discovered by deCODE, and which deCODE MI™ detects, is the first widely-replicated, common variant ever found to associate with substantial increased risk of MI as a public health problem.
Coronary heart disease and MI have long been recognized to have well defined risk factors such as smoking, overweight, lack of exercise, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, and hypertension. Still some individuals are more susceptible to developing coronary heart disease and MI than others, even after accounting for shared lifestyle and health factors. This difference is the hallmark of the impact of genetic risk factors. The risk variant on chromosome 9p21 discovered by deCODE, and which deCODE MI™ detects, is the first widely-replicated, common variant ever found to associate with substantial increased risk of MI as a public health problem. It is also the strongest genetic risk factor for MI discovered to date.
