Faulty heart genes detected in Britons

A major international study revealed yesterday that roughly 600,000 Britons have a faulty gene putting them at risk of heart failure without knowing it.  Imperial College London found one per cent of the population – and 35  million people around the world have hearts that are “primed to fail”.

Stress including a viral infection of the heart, high blood pressure, pregnancy or alcoholism can trigger problems.  The inherited condition cardiomyopathy causes heart muscle to thin, and pumping blood is then affected.  Genetic mutations in a protein called titin were common in people diagnosed with heart failure.  1,409 healthy adults had scans through Imperial using state of the art MRI and 3D “virtual hearts” were examined.

Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, who is the medical director at The British Heart Foundation said “Most people with titin mutations live a long and healthy life, but some will develop dilated cardiomyopathy, a heart  condition which can lead to heart failure”.

Professor Stuart Cook of Imperial has said “The heart of a healthy individual with the titin gene mutation lives in a compensated state.  Our next step is to find out which are the specific genetic factors or environmental triggers, such as alcohol or viral infection, may put certain people with titin mutations at risk of heart failure”.

Clearly there are triggers which lead to heart malfunction.