Heart disease and genetics

[Feb04]

My father in law has heart issues including a pacemaker and heart failure and has had for a good few years. My husband died of heart disease suddenly he didn’t know he had at 51 yrs old. Could it have been part genetic and is there a way to find out?

[PadThaiNoodles]

"Heart disease" is a pretty wide net. Some things certainly have a genetic component; other things not as much. Was it coronary heart disease? That's certainly one where we don't seem to have a good handle on how much is genetics vs. diet vs. other factors.

[Ennasti]

In my experience as someone who has been tested for a genetically inherited condition - they will only tests if there is a likelihood of genetics involved. In your situation, you have a lack of living relatives (like me) and so the genetic history is hard to obtain.

Genetic testing is firstly done on those exhibiting heart disease and there are a few things which come into play including likelihood of it being a genetic condition.

There are a large number of genetic conditions and when assessing likelihood they look beyond just first degree relatives, although they are obviously the strongest link. Other considerations are the age in which relatives have passed or suffered a cardiac arrest or died.

Other things they will look at to determine if it could be genetic are the potential for lifestyle or other factors to be a cause of those heart issues. As you might be aware things like smoking, drinking, weight, lack of exercise, high blood pressure etc can also cause heart disease and some. As I understand only 20-30% overall is directly attributable to genetically inherited conditions.

My advice is to firstly get details on the deaths. I actually applied for death certificates to help me put together that familial history. The spoken history is often wrong. For example, I was always told my uncle died at 47 years of asthma. When I saw his death certificate it clearly stated heart failure over a number of years. Long story short, my research showed that my paternal gt grandmother, gt grandfather, grandmother great aunt, 2 gt uncles, mother, and 2 uncles all died between the ages of 27 to 65 of various heart conditions. My fathers side had no one with heart related issues recorded as the cause of death.

This history, plus the fact my own mother had her first cardiac arrest at 38 years of age, and died at 65, and my brother had just had a valve replaced and an ICD at 50 years of age lead them to believe it was genetic. Unfortunately for me, they tested over 120 conduction issues and they’ve not identified what we have.

[TasteLessFood4Life in reply to Ennasti]

Great research into your family tree and cause of death. Unfortunately, common theme appears on your mum's side.

Havent gone into as much detail in my family, but know that my paternal grandfather died of heart attack when he was in his early 50s, while my dad had his HA before 40 and eventually died from heartfailure.

I am relatively healthy, but sadly couldnt dodge the bullet. Have CAD now and suffered from high cholesterol all my adult-life. After the diagnosis of CAD, managed to reduce my cholesterol significantly through statins and healthy lifestyle.

Maternal side, great genes no heart disease or other major illnesses.

So, you cant control the hand that you are dealt, but it has an impact and good to be mindful of that and control risk factors.

[Ennasti in reply to TasteLessFood4Life]

Yes, definitely on my mum’s side. Unfortunately my curiosity stopped there as deaths weren’t recorded and or details kept going back any further - well at least I can’t access them.

I don’t have high cholesterol nor any calcium build-up at all (0%) and so I have no blockages. My brother does have some blockages so that’s an anomaly. It seems to be purely electrical for me so far. I had an angio on Monday and it was again confirmed my arteries are clear - but I do have vasospastic angina which is unrelated to the conduction issue (I think(.

[andrew290171]

Pretty sure it could have been. My nan had two hearts attacks on her fifties, my mum had heart attack and needed a triple bypass at fifty and I needed a stent at fifty. Consultant told me cause of heart disease is at least 59% genetic.

[Lowerfield_no_more]

One fairly common genetically linked condition linked to heart health is very high cholesterol, one type being familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). Any person with a natural cholesterol level above about 8 may have this condition which affects about 1 person in 250 and is caused by a genetic mutation. In the UK anyone with a very high cholesterol is often sent to a lipid clinic where they are tested to confirm whether FH is present. However lipid clinics appear to be a more recent health provision, since over 25 years ago I was told my natural cholesterol was over 9 and have been on statins ever since but have never been to a lipid clinic, whereas my younger maternal side cousins have also found they are similarly placed, but this was found far more recently and they have been sent to a lipid clinic for testing and to establish a treatment regime.

[fishonabike]

family history is often one of the strongest risk factors for common disease complexes including heart conditions

this is why it is important to pay attention to the other factors which we have control over - we are not always fully aware of the inherited factors we carry with us, but we are aware of our own behaviour and actions which can increase or reduce risk

[Alixia]

if you have concerns for your children, you can ask your gp to refer your children to cardiology based on family history and any symptoms they may have. I did this and ended up being diagnosed with a genetic cardiomyopathy (LMNA)

[Qualipop]

Even though I have a family history of heart problems, not one doctor ever asked about it until a week before my heart attack when a newly qualified young doctor in Urgent care asked abd booked me for an urgent stress test. ( too late). My paternal grandfather , the youngest of 13 children was the only one to make it past 50. All the others died of what was then called dropsy - heart failure. My dad escaped any heart problems. My mum had 4 heart attacks and heart failure from her 20s but hers was caused by eclampsia in pregnancy so not hereditary. Dad's side should have been checked.

[Tlyna]

Possible. My best friend's husband's family has a long history of the same heart condition in the male side of the family and most of them died in their late 50s to early 60s. I have the exact same aortic valve malfunction that both of my parents had. My younger brother hasn't had that but has had 5 heart attacks.