NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Deaths from cardiac valvular disease aggregate in families, hinting that unknown genetic factors may be involved, according to findings from a study reported in the November 19th issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Investigator Benjamin D. Horne, a PhD candidate in genetic epidemiology at the University of Utah, told Reuters Health that “we expect in future studies to be able to find the most important genes that are largely responsible for mitral valve and aortic valve disease.” The degree of clustering is similar to that of breast and prostate cancer clustering for which major genes have been discovered.
“Once the genes are found,” he added, “we will be able to produce predictive tools for determining risk of valve disease early in life so that preventive actions and early treatments can be used.”
To evaluate the role of family history in deaths due to cardiac valve disease, the investigators used the Utah Population Database, which contains more than 2 million individual records with genealogy data and death certificates.
They identified 932 deaths due to non-rheumatic aortic disease, 1165 deaths due to mitral valve disease, 2504 due to “all valvular disease”, and 4713 deaths due to rheumatic heart disease.
Death due to mitral valve disease was markedly clustered among both first-and second-degree relatives of an individual proband who died of mitral valve disease, “even though second-degree relatives only share about half as much DNA with the proband,” Horne told Reuters Health. The familial relative risks were 2.55 and 1.67.
Restricting analyses to cases of death at an early age produced “even more striking results,” the investigators report.
Using the full genealogical information in the database, which takes into account relationships spanning several centuries, they were able to show that the excess risk of mitral valve death also extended to distant relationships.
Death due to aortic valve disease showed a weaker clustering among first-degree relatives than mitral valve disease did, and showed little clustering for second-degree relatives. Overall, say the investigators, the findings suggest that the two valve diseases have “distinct pathophysiological processes and predisposition genes.”
Based on the findings, Horne urges physicians to “collect and consider data on family history of valve disease more carefully for individuals who are being screened for heart problems... especially among those with early-onset valve disease.”
Source: Circulation 2004. [ Google search on this article ]
MeSH Headings:Biological Sciences: Biology: Genetics: Linkage (Genetics): Biological SciencesCopyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
