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Coronary artery disease

Nature versus nurture in coronary atherosclerosis

Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 14, pages 2–3 (2017)Cite this article

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“Lifestyle factors may powerfully modify risk [of coronary artery disease] regardless of the patient's genetic risk profile,” state the investigators of a new study into the interaction between genetic and lifestyle risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD). The findings were presented at the AHA Scientific Sessions 2016, and simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Individuals at high genetic risk (top quintile of polygenic scores) had nearly double the likelihood of incident coronary events than those at low genetic risk (bottom quintile; HR 1.91). Each of the healthy lifestyle factors was associated with a reduced risk of coronary events: no smoking (HR 0.56), no obesity (HR 0.66), regular exercise (HR 0.88), and healthy diet (HR 0.91). In the ARIC cohort, an unfavourable lifestyle (no or only one healthy lifestyle factor) was associated with a higher risk of coronary events than a favourable lifestyle (three or four healthy lifestyle factors; HR 1.71).

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References

  1. Khera, A. V. et al. Genetic risk, adherence to a healthy lifestyle, and coronary disease. N. Engl. J. Med. http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1605086 (2016)

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  1. Gregory B. Lim
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Lim, G. Nature versus nurture in coronary atherosclerosis. Nat Rev Cardiol 14, 2–3 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2016.191

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2016.191

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