Brothers at higher heart disease risk than sisters

3 November, 2007

Brothers are at higher risk of getting a heart condition genetically than their sisters.

Scientists at Johns Hopkins University, the United States, have found that, notwithstanding factors like age or lifestyle, if any sibling – brother or sister – suffered a heart condition, the chances for the healthy brother to develop the same condition rises by 20% within 10 years.

The same risk for a sister is lower – at 7%.

The study examined data collected from a larger study, involving 800 siblings aged 30 to 60, conducted from 1983 to 2006. The participants, who come from about 350 families around Baltimore, the United States, were generally healthy.

However, all of them had at least one sibling with premature heart condition that had required hospitalization.

Half of the participants were women.

The results of the study revealed that, the younger the age of the sibling who first develops heart disease, the greater the risk that arteries of other brothers and sisters will also narrow, harden and clog.

Science Daily quoted Diane Becker, senior leader of the study, as saying, “The risk was greater than previously thought and makes clear the existence of a substantial, if uneven hereditary link in heart disease among brothers and sisters. In the meantime, brothers and sisters in families with a history of heart disease really need to monitor their health more closely and in consultation with their physician, and consider if drug therapy and better diet, exercise and lifestyle habits are needed.”

According to Dhananjay Vaidya, Diane Becker’s colleague, “knowing that your brother or sister had a heart attack, or that a sibling suffered chest pain and was rushed to a hospital, stand out as possibly the most important predictor of whether or not another sibling develops blocked arteries.”

Though the scientists agree that genetic factors are to be blamed for the phenomenon, they are not certain on how this happens.

The research team is working on the next stage of identifying genes linked to sibling risk with a view to developing a blood test which would alert families at risk long before symptoms are manifested.

The findings by the Johns Hopkins University research team have been published in the November 2007 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.