Genome-wide association studies of coronary artery disease and heart failure: Where are we going?

The heart diseases that account for a large amount of morbidity and mortality in the developed world (coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction and heart failure) are phenotypically heterogenous disorders. It has beeen suspected for many years that genetics may have an important role in these diseases and their poor outcome. However, thier complex and likely polygenic pathophysiology has confounded clear understanding of the genetic contribution to their etiology. Despite technological progress and great promise associated with genome-wide association studies, to date the results of their application to coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction and heart failure have yielded limited insights into these common disease. This review discusses the current status of genome-wide association studies as they have been applied to these cohorts. The potentail limitations of these studies, as well as potential future directions for identifying impoprtant genes are also discussed.