Family history of CHD

Outlined 

You are considered to have a family history of cardiovascular disease if:
your father or brother was under the age of 55 when they were diagnosed with cardiovascular disease or your mother or sister was under the age of 65 when they were diagnosed with cardiovascular disease.

Research    

Finding heart disease genes

Atherosclerosis, the cause of heart attack and stroke, often runs in families.    

In the 1990s two BHF Professors Stephen Ball and Sir Nilesh Samani set up the British Heart Foundation and MRC-funded Family Heart Study which collected blood samples from 2,000 families with a history of heart attacks.

Biggest study of its kind

They could then compare DNA from 4,000 affected individuals. At the time it was the largest ever study of families for heart disease. Two volunteers that took part were brother and sister Arvind and Jasu Mistry, who both had heart attacks at a young age.

The DNA analysis of these volunteers created the foundation for a huge international research collaboration to untangle the complex inheritance of coronary heart disease, led by Professor Nilesh Samani and BHF Professor Hugh Watkins.