admindeveloping heart disease in a large-scale international study, according to foreign media reports on Sunday.
The study, published on Sunday in Nature Genetics, was one of the most far-reaching in the past years.
Led by researchers at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and University of Lubeck in Germany, it also involved 150 scientists from across Europe, Canada and the United States.
For this study, the international research group examined the complete genetic profiles of more than 22 000 people of European descent with coronary heart disease or a heart attack history.
Then they compared the data to that of around 60 000 healthy people to validate the findings.
The results show that of the total of 23 variants now known, seven are linked with levels of “bad” and one is linked with high blood pressure, both of which are known risk factors for heart disease. But the others are not relevant to known cardiovascular risk factors.
Researchers said that the findings would provide clues to the new opportunities for future discovery and lead to more effective treatment plans.
“With such information we should be able to better identify people at high risk early on in life and quickly take the steps to neutralise that excess risk,” said Themistocles Assimes, a research scientist with Stanford University School of Medicine in the United States.
World Health Organisation statistics show that cardiovascular diseases claim 17,1 million lives a year, being the world’s biggest killers.
The cost on medical devices and drugs for heart disease treatment amounts to billions of US dollars every year. – Xinhuanet.
Online Reporter
- Herald
- June 1, 2026
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