deCODE Cardio
A cost-effective test panel detecting genetic risk factors for eight common cardiovascular diseases and assessing clopidogrel metabolizing status
Understanding genetic predisposition together with other standard risk factors enables the development of more effective, personalized prevention and early detection strategies
The deCODE Cardio Scan detects the same risk factors and markers included in our individual tests for:
Atrial Fibrillation (deCODE AF™),
Clopidogrel Metabolizing Status (deCODE Clopidogrel™),
Heart Attack (deCODE MI™) and
Type 2 Diabetes (deCODE T2™).
together with:
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm, Intracranial Aneurysm and
Venous Thromboembolism.
Risk assessment – the key to prevention
Like all common diseases, cardiovascular diseases arise as a result of the confluence of genetic and environmental/lifestyle risk factors. By bringing the genetic component of risk into the picture, our Cardio Scan can help to point physicians and patients in the right direction when it comes to early detection and prevention through medication and a heart-healthy lifestyle.
A comprehensive scan
Many genetic variants, or SNPs, affect susceptibility to cardiovascular disease. The deCODE Cardio Scan measures the most comprehensive and up-to-date set of validated genetic risk factors for a range of CV diseases, including all of the risk markers for all of deCODE’s individual CV disease tests. It provides doctors with tools for seamlessly integrating this information with existing risk information they have for their patients.
Why Order deCODE Cardio?
Risk modification and clinical utility
The risk detected by deCODE Cardio is largely independent of that conferred by standard risk factors measured in clinical practice. Thus, the results of this scan can be directly applied to modify risk assessments made using standard risk scores and measurements. The results can, for example, modify Framingham, Reynold’s, or ARIC scores for risk of heart attack, or to modify assessed risk of conversion from prediabetes to full-blown T2D diabetes using blood sugar measurements, age, sex and ethnicity.
As a consequence of having a more complete picture of cardiovascular risk, many patients will be recategorized for their risk of disease. This can have clear implications for physicians’ preventive recommendations and goals, with some patients to be treated more aggressively through lifestyle modification, drugs, or the treatment of related conditions, and others reclassified to lower risk categories.
More comprehensive risk stratification can also inform decisions on screening for diseases such as aortic or cerebral aneurysm or intermittent atrial fibrillation as a possible cause for a stroke.
Empowering physicians and patients
As prevention strategies are to a great extent dependent upon successful changes in lifestyle, deCODE Cardio results can also help by giving physicians’ advice extra weight, and providing patients with added incentive to follow that advice. Moreover, the interaction between genetic and environmental is often dynamic, such that for a patient who carries a genetic risk factor, controlling other risks may be even more important in the context of their genetic predisposition.
Many risk factors detected by the deCODE Cardio apply only to people of European descent.
Most genetic studies of disease risk in the scientific literature have to date been based on populations of European ancestry. There are also a growing number of results for populations of Asian and African ancestry. For each of our products and for every disease for which we test risk variants we note the number of markers that have been validated for individuals of various continental ancestries.
This content was last reviewed on January 31, 2011.