Smartphone app calculates genetic risk for heart attack

Smartphone app calculates genetic risk for heart attack

2 years ago
Anonymous $jukOC22bR_

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220314142023.htm

In the study, which appears in npj Digital Medicine in March 2022, the researchers detailed how their app called MyGeneRank inputs participating individuals' genetic information from the 23andMe genetic testing company and outputs a CAD risk score based on the DNA data. Of the 721 participants who provided complete information, those with high-risk scores were much more likely to start using statins or other cholesterol-lowering therapies, compared to those with low-risk scores.

"We saw about twice the rate of statin initiation in the high genetic risk group vs the low genetic risk group, which indicates that strategies like this could make a big contribution to public health -- heart disease being the largest cause of death globally," says study senior author Ali Torkamani, PhD, professor and director of Genomics and Genome Informatics at the Scripps Research Translational Institute.