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Posted on Mar 27, 2013, 6 a.m.
Researchers are successfully able to predict survival rates and life expectancy among patients with heart disease, based on the length of the end caps of their chromosomes.
Telomeres are the end caps of chromosomes, protecting the DNA complexes from deterioration during cell division. Telomere shortening is considered a marker of cellular aging, and prematurely shortened telomeres have been linked to increased risk of cancers, heart disease, dementia and death. John Carlquist, from the University of Utah (Utah, USA), and colleagues tested DNA samples from over 3,500 heart attack and stroke patients. They drew upon an archive of peripheral blood DNA samples collected from nearly 30,000 heart patients, with as much as 20 years of follow-up clinical and survival data. Correlating the data with samples tested, the team was able to predict survival rates among patients with heart disease based on the telomere lengths. The lead investigator comments that: "I believe telomere length could be used in the future as a way to measure the effectiveness of heart care treatment."
John Carlquist, Stacey Knight, Richard M. Cawthon, Benjamin Horne, Jeffrey Rollo, John Huntinghouse, J. Muhlestein, Jeffrey Anderson. “Telomere Length Is Associated with Survival, Patients Preferred for Angiography." Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Volume 61, Issue 10, Supplement, 12 March 2013, Page E1509.
