Cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of premature death in this country, accounts for more than $150 billion in lost productivity each year. Thanks to decades of research, we know a lot about what makes people more susceptible to coronary artery disease, the most common form of heart disease and the root cause of most heart attacks. . However, doctors still cannot accurately predict heart attacks. Some people who appear to be susceptible to heart attacks never have one, while others die from heart disease despite no obvious risk.
Can genetic profiling help? Probably so, according to a 2022 scientific statement from the American Heart Association that looks at the opportunities and challenges of such testing. These tests use a small sample of blood or saliva to analyze millions of common variations in DNA and create something called a polygenic risk score. There can be zero, one, or two copies of a gene mutation, each of which can increase or decrease the risk of coronary artery disease.
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