“COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study led by researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine shows the benefit of having patients with advanced disease from dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) undergo genetic testing to help identify the inherited heart muscle disease in family members.
Researchers found that DCM patients with advanced heart disease, defined as having a heart transplant or left ventricular assist device (LVAD), are nearly 2 ½ times more likely to have a mutation in a relevant DCM gene than those with less severe heart disease.
“These findings are highly relevant. The ultimate goal is to prevent advanced DCM, when a heart transplant or LVAD may be needed. Even though dilated cardiomyopathy is known to run in families, genetic testing is seldom done on patients who had have heart transplants or LVADs. If genetic testing were done routinely on these patients, we could identify their family members who carry the same gene mutations and start treatment with early signs of disease before the individual has advanced disease,” said senior author Ray Hershberger, MD, a cardiologist and division director of Human Genetics at the College of Medicine…”
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