Health

Heart problems may run in families

NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Nov. 19, 2007

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Family ties that bind brothers and sisters together also link their risk for developing clogged arteries and having fatal heart attacks, according to research in the Nov. 1 American Journal of Cardiology. Brothers are particularly at risk. For sisters, the risk was less but still evident. The younger the age of the sibling who first develops heart disease, the greater the risk to the others.

The shared 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, said researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

The researchers used data collected for the Sibling and Family Heart Study, which monitors risk factors in 800 siblings ages 30 to 60.

Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/11/19/hlbf1119.htm.

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