The role of genetic predisposition and biomarkers in atherosclerosis

It may be expected that new risk factors emerging from research on biomarkers and SNPs will provide more precise and personalized approaches to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease. They will be particularly useful for a better prognosis in first-degree relatives of patients with major implications on preventive medicine. Most importantly, these new risk factors will lead to better understand why more than 60% of all MIs occur in individuals classified as being at low or intermediate risk according to the currently used risk algorithms. Finally, these fascinating developments have the promising potential to provide new insights into molecular mechanisms leading to atherosclerosis and thus may provide important contributions to the development of highly specific new drugs to treat coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction and stroke.