Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are claiming more young lives in recent times. CVD is the leading cause of mortality worldwide and according to World Health Organization (WHO), India contributes to about 20 percent of CVD deaths in younger people.
It is alarming that the average age of incidence of CVD is almost a decade earlier in Indians when compared to the west. Young age deaths are not only personally devastating but also impact a nation’s growth and development owing to the working-age group being a valuable resource for growth and development.
The discussion on heart attacks in young Indians has also taken the center stage due to the untimely demise of many celebrities including a movie star from the Kannada film industry. These are individuals who are believed to be in good health owing to the personas they bear as part of their acting careers. Many of them have admirers who flock to them and follow their health routines to get some semblance of these celebrities. Yet when these shocking cardiac episodes happen, we are left to wonder if we are missing something here.
Heart disease is often referred to as a silent killer. Symptoms usually appear after significant damage has been done to the cardiovascular system. While environmental factors such as high blood pressure, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, and obesity are widely recognized to enhance the risk for CVD, there is more than what meets the eye.
Heart diseases, like other common diseases like cancer, are a result of a combination of inherited genetic risk and environmental influence. Genetic predisposition was not well established until recently due to the possible involvement of not just one but several genetic variations in orchestrating susceptibility to a heart condition.
Although monogenic variations have been well studied in conditions such as familial hypercholesterolemia, understanding the cumulative impact of alterations in various genes was difficult in the past owing to lack of appropriate technology and tools.
With the advent of next-generation sequencing which is a high-throughput technique that facilitates screening of the entire human genetic sequence for variations, understanding the genetic basis of common diseases such as CVD has been made possible. In diseases such as CVD which are polygenic (several genes) in nature, calculation of genetic risk in an individual for the disease is achieved by employing what is known as polygenic risk score (PRS).
A Polygenic Risk Score integrates several variations in the human genome and has the potential to identify individuals with risk for developing a common disease like CVD. A multi-centric study has revealed a significant risk for coronary artery disease (CAD) in south Asians.
This study was based on PRS and suggests that Indians carry three times the higher genetic risk for CAD when compared to other ethnicities. This is a significant finding since it enables an individual to determine genetic risk much before the symptoms set in and take necessary clinical intervention and lifestyle changes to delay or prevent a cardiac event.
Kardiogen by Genessense from MedGenome is a step towards determining one's genetic risk for developing a heart condition in the future. It integrates the data from over 6 million sites from a person’s DNA and gives a risk score called the Kardiogen risk score (KRS) which can predict risk for heart disease with almost 90 percent accuracy.
Based on KRS, one may be recognized as having a high, moderate, or average risk for heart disease. Depending upon the category, an individual is advised a combination of clinical and lifestyle management approach. However, the risk for developing heart disease is also based on clinical factors such as blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking status, etc.
A combination of clinical risk and KRS would give a combined risk for developing heart disease. While KRS is based on genetic factors and cannot be changed, clinical factors can be managed through lifestyle changes and medication.
And what more? Kardiogen test is a direct-to-customer facility and can be ordered from the comfort of one's home. Kardiogen is meant for all individuals above 18 years of age and needs to be done only once.
The growing number of deaths due to undiagnosed cardiac conditions is a matter of concern. A substantial number of individuals in working age can be saved from events like CAD-related deaths through pre-symptomatic risk determination. Check your DNA before you wreck your heart.
Authored by Dr Vedam Ramprasad, Scientist and CEO, at MedGenome Labs. Views expressed are personal.
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