Published Online
on February 12, 2009

A more recent version of this article appeared on April 1, 2009

This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 2/2/98    most recent CIRCGENETICS.108.806562v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Banerjee, A. Articles by Rothwell, P. M. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Banerjee, A. Articles by Rothwell, P. M. Related Collections Primary prevention Risk Factors Acute coronary syndromes Acute myocardial infarction Epidemiology Related Article

Original Article

Sex-Specific Familial Clustering of Myocardial Infarction in Patients with Acute Coronary Syndromes

Amitava Banerjee; Louise E. Silver; Carl Heneghan; Sarah J.V. Welch; Linda M. Bull; Ziyah Mehta; Adrian P. Banning and Peter M. Rothwell¹

Stroke Prevention Research Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

¹ E-mail: peter.rothwell{at}clneuro.ox.ac.uk

Background—Family history of premature myocardial infarction (MI) in first degree relatives is a risk factor for MI, and an indication for primary prevention. Although excess mother-to-daughter "transmission" occurs in ischaemic stroke, no published studies have considered sex-of-parent/sex-of-proband interactions in the heritability of MI.

Methods and Results—In a population-based study (Oxford Vascular Study) of all patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS), irrespective of age, family history of all acute vascular events and related risk factors were analysed by sex and age of both probands and first degree relatives. Premature events were categorised as occurring at age <65 years. Of 835 probands with one or more ACS, 623 (420 males) had incident events and complete family history data. In probands with premature ACS, maternal history of both MI and of all vascular events were more common in female than male probands (OR=2.25, 1.02-4.94, p=0.04 and 3.03, 1.47-6.26, p=0.002 respectively). No such effect existed for paternal history (OR=1.00, 0.46-2.10, p=0.99 and 1.19, 0.58-2.43, p=0.63 respectively). Age at ACS in probands was highly correlated with age at MI in mothers (r= 0.46, p<0.001) regardless of the proband’s sex. Consequently, history of premature maternal MI was strongly associated with premature ACS and premature MI in female (OR=10.52, 2.17-56.6, p=0.001 and OR 7.31, 1.55-34.6, p=0.004 respectively) and male probands (3.88, 1.20-12.6, p=0.01 and OR 3.63, 1.13-11.60, p=0.02 respectively).

Conclusions—Important sex-of-parent/sex-of-proband interactions exist in the family history of MI in patients with ACS. Greater emphasis should be placed on maternal than paternal history of MI, particularly in women aged <65 years.

Key Words: epidemiology • myocardial infarction • population • family history • sex-specific

Related Article

Sex-Specific Familial Clustering of Myocardial Infarction in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndromes

Amitava Banerjee, Louise E. Silver, Carl Heneghan, Sarah J.V. Welch, Linda M. Bull, Ziyah Mehta, Adrian P. Banning, and Peter M. Rothwell
Circ Cardiovasc Genet 2009 2: 98-105. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]