No genetic link found for heart risk, study says

Tue Apr 10, 2007 4:26 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Genetic testing failed to find any gene mutations that predict a higher risk of heart disease, a study released on Tuesday said.
Scientists at Yale University worked up the genetic profiles of nearly 1,500 people to examine 85 genes that smaller, earlier studies suggested might confer susceptibility to heart problems.
More than half the patients had come to a hospital having suffered a heart attack or other acute symptoms, while the others had experienced no heart trouble.
Only one genetic variation showed even a modest association to heart problems in the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"We therefore conclude that our findings, in this large sample ... cannot support that this panel of gene variants contains bona fide (heart disease) risk factors," study author Dr. Thomas Morgan wrote. Morgan is now at Washington University in St. Louis.

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