Grant: Project Grant

Heart disease risk is strongly influenced by genetics, particularly when it occurs at a young age. As a consequence, when one individual develops heart disease under the age of 55 years, his or her first degree relatives (siblings, children and parents) are at substantially increased risk of also developing heart disease. Current approaches to identify patients at risk for heart disease focuses largely on older adults, and thus fails to identify most of the cases of early onset heart disease. We have devised a study, called SAVE BC (Study to Avoid Vascular Events in British Columbia), to identify individuals with early onset heart disease (which we define as men less than 50 and women less than 55 years), and then to systematically identify the affected individual's first degree relatives, and use state-of-the-art screening approaches to predict their risk of developing disease. Where appropriate, these family members will be offered preventative therapies to reduce their risk. The goals of this proposal are to assess the ability of this screening approach to identify individuals at risk of heart disease who are eligible for preventative therapy. We will also study the clinical and genetic risk factors for early onset heart disease in Canada, and work with patients and health care providers to improve family based screening. This work is expected to improve the dedications of Canadians at risk for early onset heart disease and to lower the burden of this disease in Canada.