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Heart Disease in Sibling Doubles Your Risk
Oct. 4, 2004 -- If you have a brother or sister who had heart disease at an early age, you should pay special attention to your own heart's health.
Siblings of people with premature heart disease may be more than twice as likely to have calcium deposits in the arteries of the heart, according to a new study by Roger Blumenthal, MD, of the Ciccarone Preventive Cardiology Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
Such calcium deposits are an early warning sign of clogged heart arteries, which can lead to heart attacks.
Blumenthal and colleagues studied more than 8,500 men and women who had not shown signs of heart disease. Most were 45 to 64 years old.
Each participant underwent an electron beam CT scan to look for calcium deposits in their heart arteries.
Participants were also asked about their family history of heart disease, particularly heart attacks or procedures to open up clogged heart arteries in brothers, sisters, or parents before age 55.
While previous research has already linked family history to heart disease, researchers say this is the first study to show the connection appears stronger between siblings than between parents and children.
Compared with those without a family history of heart disease, men with a sibling who had heart disease before age 55 were 2.3 times more likely to have calcium deposits in their heart arteries. Men with an affected parent were 1.3 times as likely to have calcium deposits. When both a sibling and a parent had premature heart disease, the risk was 2.5 times greater.
The numbers were similar for women.
Moderate amounts of calcium deposits were more common among participants with more heart disease risk factors, such as smoking, diabetes, obesity, physical inactivity, high blood pressure, and abnormal cholesterol.
Reporting their findings in the Oct. 12 issue of the journal Circulation, the researchers say they don't know why siblings show a stronger risk. Genetics or environmental factors could be at work.
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