Genes Play Greater Role in Heart Attacks Than Stroke

In this article, it is reported that people have higher chance of having a heart attack than having a stroke. The result of the study proves that we need two separate distinct models for risk assessment of the two conditions. Peter Rothwell, professor of clinical neurology at Oxford University, found that there your parents and you have higher chance of having heart than having a stroke. A second analysis, which included patient’s sibling as well as parents, showed same result. This proved that family history seemed to be a stronger predictor for heart attack than for stroke. Oxford Vascular Study began in 2002, in which more than 91,000 people were served by one hospital in Oxfordshire County. This study was conducted by Rothwell and his colleagues to “clarify and confirm evidence suggesting a great difference in genetic predisposition between heart attacks and strokes.”We had found previously that much of the heritability of stroke is related to the genetics of high blood pressure, which doesn't seem to be the case for heart attack," Rothwell said. Hypertension appears to be closely related with stroke rather than heart attack, which is why a family history of hypertension is related to a higher risk of stroke. The findings of the study hold two significant implications. First there needs to be a change in a way which physicians determine a healthy person suffering from either heart attack or stroke. Most of the current models combine the family history of stroke and heart attack; we should rather model them separately. I found this interesting because this is true, we do see lot of current model combing patient’s family history of stroke and heart attack together, it is better to separate them to better solve the situation or current condition.