20 Jul Genetic Risk Score Did Not Predict Recurring Events After Myocardial Infarction
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Christopher Labos MD CM, MSc FRCPC
Division of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec
Canada
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: There have been great advances in the field of genetics in recent years. Especially in cardiology, a number of genetic variants have been identified that are associated with cardiovascular disease. But it is not clear how useful these variants are in terms of predicting future evens in patients that have already suffered a myocardial infarction. What we found in our study is that a genetic risk score composed of the 30 most common genetic variants associated with cardiovascular diseases was not useful in predicting recurrent events in the first year after a patient suffered a myocardial infarction.
Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Response: While genetics is clearly important for the development of atherosclerosis over the long-term, ordering a genetic panel in patients after an myocardial infarction is not likely to provide any new useful information in the short-term beyond what physicians can get from asking about standard risk factors in the post-ACS setting. So a genetic risk score would not necessarily change treatment approaches in the early post-ACS setting for the patient.
Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: It will be interesting to see if other researchers can find utility for using a genetic risk score in certain subgroups of patients or in longer follow-up periods where the mechanism of disease may be different. A recent study suggests that people with a high genetic risk score may have more benefit from lipid-lowering from statins which, if replicated by other groups, would have important clinical implications for using a genetic profile after an ACS. It will also be important to re-examine the issue as new genetic variants are discovered in the future that may provide additional predictive capacity.
Citation:
Atherosclerosis Available online 17 July 2015
Christopher Labos, Sara C. Martinez, Rui Hao Leo Wang, Petra A. Lenzini, Louise Pilote, Peter Bogaty, James M. Brophy, James C. Engert, Sharon Cresci, George Thanassoulis
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Christopher Labos MD CM, MSc FRCPC (2015). Genetic Risk Score Did Not Predict Recurring Events After Myocardial Infarction
Last Updated on July 20, 2015 by Marie Benz MD FAAD