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Cardiovascular disease in a first-degree relative confers increased risk for CVD, but whether familial CVD is truly an independent risk factor remains controversial, according to background information in the article. Risk associated with CVD in siblings is uncertain because published estimates are largely derived from case-control studies that generally lack sibling CVD event validation. Furthermore, estimates regarding magnitude of risk associated with a history of sibling CVD vary greatly. Accurate information about familial CVD will have increasing importance in prevention and treatment of CVD in the post-genome era.

Joanne M. Murabito, M.D., Sc.M., of the Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Mass., and colleagues conducted a study to determine whether the occurrence of a validated sibling CVD event predicted CVD events in a cohort of middle-aged adults, and examined the impact of sibling CVD over and above that of parental CVD. The researchers analyzed data from the Framingham Offspring Study, a part of the Framingham Heart Study, a population-based study initiated in 1948 with the offspring cohort initiated in 1971. Participants were members of the offspring cohort aged 30 years or older, free of CVD, and with at least 1 sibling in the study. All were followed up for eight years.

Among 973 person-examinations in those who had a sibling with CVD group (average age, 57 years) and 4,506 person-examinations in those with no sibling with CVD group (average age, 47 years), 329 CVD events occurred during follow-up. The researchers found that sibling CVD was associated with a 55 percent increased risk for incident CVD; this association persisted even after adjustment for risk factors (45 percent increased ris
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Contact: Joanne M. Murabito, M.D., Sc.M.
508-935-3461
JAMA and Archives Journals
27-Dec-2005