A £50 [or roughly $65] genetic test could identify people at risk of a heart attack decades in advance, and see some patients put on statins in their 20’s, experts say.
New research has found that DNA profiling can single out those most likely to develop heart disease, to ensure that lifestyle advice and drugs are offered earlier.
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Experts said the advances could see a shift towards “precision medicine” with those found to have a high chance of heart attacks and strokes given a warning in their 20’s.
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The study…found a new way to calculate risk scores, analyzing almost 50,000 tiny differences in DNA.
When the method was tested on more than 16,000 people, those in the highest 20 per cent of risk scores were found to be five times more likely than those in the lowest 20 per cent to develop heart disease.
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“This could mean that some people are offered statins in their 20’s, when heart disease starts developing rather than waiting until middle age….” [Prof. Sir Nilesh Samani] said.
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