It is being reported that scientists have created a new gene test that can help to predict a person’s risk of developing heart disease.
The test looks for mutations in a gene called KIF6, and in people who have this mutation, what comes with it is a 55% increased risk of heart disease onset at some point in their lives.
According to the American Heart Association, more than 1 million Americans have heart attacks each year, a number that could possibly be reduced if doctors had an early way of diagnosing the risk of heart disease.
“It’s a DNA test, and once you know your KIF6 status you know it for life,” Celera President Kathy Ordonez said in a telephone interview yesterday. “This test would be done in addition to other traditional risk-factor assessments such as cholesterol and blood pressure.”
In three studies all of which to be published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology it was confirmed that even in people with a mutation in the KIF6 their risk of heart disease could be lowered if they began taking cholesterol lowering drugs.
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