People are significantly more likely to inherit a predisposition to heart attack than to stroke, according to research reported in Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, an American Heart Association journal. The study results have implications for better understanding the genetics of stroke and suggest the need for separate risk assessment models for the two conditions. “We found that the association between one of your parents having a heart attack and you having a heart attack was a lot stronger than the association between your parent having a stroke and you having a stroke,” said senior author Peter M. Rothwell, M.D., Ph.D., professor of clinical neurology at Oxford University in England. “That suggests the susceptibility to stroke is less strongly inherited than the susceptibility to heart attack.” A second analysis, which included patients’ siblings as well as parents, yielded the same result: Family history proved a stronger risk predictor for heart attack than for stroke.
