Cases and population platform (KORA/MONICA; GMIS; PREVENT-IT, LE HEART)

Coordinator:		Prof. Dr. Christian Hengstenberg
Institution:		Universität Regensburg
Homepage:		www.uniklinikum-regensburg.de

Coronary artery disease (CAD) and myocardial infarction (MI) are the leading causes of death in our Western society. It has been demonstrated that CAD and MI are complex diseases where several genetic variations have an important modulating influence on risk. A single gene variation by itself, however, has only a small effect size with an odds ratio of 1.1 to 1.3. In this constellation, (very) large populations are required to identify relevant genetic variation and to validate them across several other and independent populations to exclude spurious association.
In the Atherogenomics programme, we are in the unique position to unite several large populations that are both, very well characterized and in a long term follow-up. The follow-up of individuals enables to correlate clinical variability and outcome measures (morbidity, mortality) in cases and controls according to their genetic disposition. In addition, comparative genetics will speed-up identification of genes for susceptibility for human atherosclerosis, thus strengthen the overall aim of the IG to develop novel diagnostic tools and therapeutic targets for individualized prevention of atherosclerotic vascular disease.