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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Its well documented that heart disease can run in families. Now, new research shows a specific type of heart disease is an inherited condition that clusters in families. German researchers say left main coronary artery disease (LMD) doubles the heart disease risk in siblings.
Coronary angiograms from more than 1,800 patients were analyzed for the study. These were from families with more than two siblings who had coronary artery disease. Researchers found 12 percent of the patients had LMD, which was defined as more than 50 percent narrowing of the left main artery. They found that if one of the siblings had LMD, the other siblings were more than three-times as likely to also have LMD.
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In a prospective study, researchers also followed 1,369 healthy siblings for five years. During this time, 79 of the healthy siblings had a heart attack or had heart surgery. They found that the initially healthy siblings of a person with LMD were 2.5-times more likely to develop some form of heart disease than were siblings of a patient with heart disease that did not relate to the left main coronary artery.
Study authors say these findings could have important implications because more intensive screening and prevention strategies could be set up for people who have family members with LMD.
SOURCE: European Heart Journal, October 4, 2007
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
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