Heart disease genes no death sentence
While genetic variants linked to heart disease can cause the disease to develop at a younger age, it doesn't appear to reduce an individual's life expectancy after a heart attack. Image: Dkart/iStockphoto Inheriting gene variants that increase the risk of developing coronary heart disease does not necessarily mean an individual is going to have reduced life expectancy if he or she suffers a heart attack.Two research papers revealing these findings by Dr Katrina Ellis and colleagues at the University of Otago, Christchurch have been highlighted in the leading international cardiology journal Circulation, along with 42 other papers from cardiac researchers around the world.“These results have attracted considerable international attention as we found for the first time that the most likely gene variants for risk of developing coronary heart disease didn’t have a major negative effect on survival after heart attack, as might have been expected by the medical and scientific community,” explains...