Genetics of (premature) coronary artery disease

Coronary artery disease (CAD) and its major complication, myocardial infarction (MI), remain the number one cause of death in industrialized society, causing approximately one in every six deaths in the United States in 2010. CAD is the clinical manifestation of a chronic pathomorphological process that occurs in the vascular wall. Carl Müller (1886- 1983) was the first to identify a link between high plasma cholesterol, xanthoma, and premature coronary heart disease in 1939, providing early evidence of a genetic component of CAD and its association with cholesterol. Today, it is well established that CAD arises from the interaction of multiple genetic and environmental factors. Likewise, a multifactorial etiology applies to many of the underlying cardiovascular risk factors, including hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and smoking.