Background

Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) develops when blood vessels that supply the heart become damaged or disease. This is usually caused by build-up of plaques. About 18.2 million adults age 20 and older have CAD which caused 365,914 deaths in 2017. Coronary Artery Disease is partially attributable to genetic factors and genetic heritability of heart failure (HF) is 34%; therefore, it is likely that genetic risk is a predictor of development if Ischemic Heart Failure (iHF).

Technology Overview

A polygenic risk score sums the cumulative contribution of common genetic variants across the genome and weights their effect on disease under consideration. This polygenic risk score provides insights into an individual’s predisposition to Ischemic Heart Failure. The score could be utilized to guide patient management prior to the onset of disease.

Stage of Development

Score derived from genome wide association study (GWAS)
The iHF risk score was trained on a data set of 6,903 patients and validated on a data set comprising of 7,250 patients
Study found CAD patients with a HF-PRS in the top 10th percentile have 1.5-fold increased odds of developing iHF in the training cohort and 1.3-fold increased odds in the validation cohort

Benefits

Genomic risk scores may allow for early diagnosis, even in childhood
Allow for early intervention, therefore increasing efficacy of treatments and potential prevention of heart failure in high-risk patients

Applications

Identifying patients at high risk for developing iHF

Polygenic Risk Score for Ischemic Heart Failure

Seeking