International recognition for article on hereditary risk for myocardial infarction

Researchers at the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) were among the contributors to an article that was recently chosen as one of the Top Advances in Functional Genomics and Translational Biology for 2009. The title of the article is “Genome-wide association of early-onset myocardial infarction with single nucleotide polymorphisms and copy number variants”.

The article is first on the 2009 list of the American Heart Association Functional Genomics and Translational Biology Interdisciplinary Council. The Council chooses a number of articles considered to be the top advances every year. Inclusion in the Top Advances for 2009 may be taken as a sign of international recognition of Finnish population studies and their results.

The Finnish FINRISK material has featured prominently in international research projects which have brought us new information on genetic predisposition for myocardial infarction and the associated risk factors. The article now included among the Top Advances for 2009 was published on 8 February 2009 in the prestigious journal Nature Genetics. THL researchers were among the writers of the article and FINRISK material was part of the material used. THL has been conducting FINRISK studies at five-year intervals since 1972. The studies focus on risk factors for chronic diseases that are a major public health problem. A random sample of 6000–10 000 people from specific regions of Finland have been included in each study.

The Myocardial Infarction Genetics Consortium (MIGen) is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and studies genetic predisposition to myocardial infarction in patients with early-onset heart disease and control groups. The material for the study came from six international sites: Boston and Seattle in the United States as well as Sweden, Finland, Spain and Italy. The Finnish material comprised all the men in the FINRISKI material who had had a myocardial infarction before the age of 50 and all the women who had one before 60. Genome-wide scan was performed on the material. The study identified nine genetic loci associated with increased risk for myocardial infarction. Three of these were found for the first time in this study, while six were previously known.

More information

Veikko Salomaa
Research Professor
Tel. +358 20 610 8620

Pia Okamo
Communications Officer
Tel. +358 20 610 7059, +358 40 707 4068

National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL)
e-mail: firstname.lastname@thl.fi