Prediction of Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes and Established Cardiovascular Risk Factors by Genome-Wide Association Markers

BackgroundGenome-wide association (GWA) platforms have yielded a rapidly increasing number of new genetic markers. The ability of these markers to improve prediction of clinically important outcomes is debated.Methods and resultsA systematic review was performed of GWA-derived markers associated with cardiovascular outcomes or other phenotypes that represent common established risk factors for cardiovascular outcomes. Sources of information included the National Human Genome Research Institute catalog of published GWA studies, and perusal of the eligible GWA articles, meta-analyses on the respective associations, and articles on the incremental predictive performance of common variants in the GWA era. A total of 95 eligible associations were retrieved from the National Human Genome Research Institute catalogue of published GWA studies as of September 2008. Of those 36 have statistical support of PConclusionsDespite very promising signals in terms of statistical significance, evidence for improvement in cardiovascular prediction by currently available markers derived from GWA studies is sparse. Clinical use of such markers currently would be premature.