Family History May Predict Heart Attack More Than Stroke

(HealthDay News) -- Genetics may play more of a role in heart attacks than in strokes, a new British study suggests.

"A family history of heart attack appears to be a stronger risk factor for heart attack than a family history of stroke is for stroke," said study author Amitava Banerjee, a clinical lecturer in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Birmingham in England.

The findings should alter the way doctors predict a patient's risk of heart attack and stroke based on family history, the researchers said. And, "genes and genome-wide association studies may not be critical to the field of stroke research," Banerjee added.

Both stroke and heart attack are leading killers of adults in the United States.

For their report, published in the August issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, Banerjee's team collected data from the Oxford Vascular Study on 906 people who had heart attacks and 1,015 stroke survivors. Read more...

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