Personal Genomics for Preventive Cardiology

October 3, 2017 updated by: Joshua Knowles, Stanford University

A Pilot Randomized Trial of Personal Genomics for Preventive Cardiology

The purpose of this study is to see if providing information to a person on their inherited (genetic) risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) helps to motivate that person to change their diet, lifestyle or medication regimen to alter their risk.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Genome wide association studies (GWAS) have identified over 1000 disease associated SNPs, including many related to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Associations have been found for most traditional risk factors including lipids, blood pressure /hypertension, weight/body mass index, smoking behavior, and diabetes. Importantly, GWAS have also identified susceptibility variants for coronary heart disease/ myocardial infarction (CHD/MI), many of which are independent of traditional risk factors and thus cannot currently be assessed by surrogate measures. The first, and so far the strongest, of these signals was found in the 9p21.3 locus and are associated with a 20-40% increase in the relative risk of coronary heart disease among Caucasian and East Asian populations. Like most of the associations identified to date, the function of the non-coding 9p21.3 chromosomal region remains unclear. These markers predict disease and can modesty improve reclassification indices. For instance, in a very recent example, 13 SNPs previously identified in GWAS as associated with CHD/MI were incorporated into a multilocus model to estimate the association of a genetic risk score with incident CHD/MI in several large prospective studies. Even after adjusting for family history and traditional risk factors, individuals in the top quintile were at 1.66 times increased risk compared with those at the bottom quintile 36. There was a significant improvement in reclassification of intermediate risk patients. The use of these markers has not yet been shown to outperform models including traditional risk factors and family history. This shortcoming is probably because the vast majority of heritable risk remains undiscovered. The basis for this heritability gap remains unclear but is the focus of intense investigation. Despite the heritability gap, it is still possible that the use of known genetic risk factors may improve patient outcomes. For instance, genetic testing can improve patient adherence and risk factor reduction for Mendelian forms of coronary disease like familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). However, for "garden variety" coronary disease, there has never been a clinical trial that indicates that using genetic markers improves outcomes. There are strong signals from the NIH, the US Preventive Services Task Force and other independent prevention centers that genetic screening will be highly scrutinized until such trials exist. Currently, both the Evaluation of Genomic Applications in Practice and Prevention (EGAPP) Working Group and the ACC/AHA Taskforce on Practice Guidelines recommend against genetic testing for coronary disease 39,40 because there is no clinical trial data supporting their use. Despite these recommendations, and lack of efficacy data, there are huge financial pressures to increase genetic testing by "direct-to-consumer" companies. In this context, there is a perfect opportunity to develop well-designed clinical trials to test these variants.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

100

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • Stanford, California, United States, 94305
        • Stanford Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adults age > 18
  • Patient seeking cardiovascular risk evaluation
  • At intermediate (6-20%) or high risk (> 20%) over 10 years of CAD as defined by Framingham 10 year risk score AND/OR at > 20% risk of CAD over 30 years using the Framingham 30 year risk calculator
  • The genetic risk factors have been evaluated predominantly in white/European subjects. However, there is considerable overlap in the genetic architecture of South Asians and Hispanic/Latino populations. Therefore, we will limit our initial studies to these three race/ethnicity groups.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • History of myocardial infarction, angina, stroke, peripheral arterial disease, PCI, or CABG
  • Already on lipid lowering therapy
  • Anticipated survival <1 year (e.g. metastatic cancer)
  • Serious conditions that would limit ability to adhere to recommendations (inability to take statins, exercise)
  • Already had genetic testing
  • Concurrent enrollment in another clinical trial
  • Pregnant or breastfeeding

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: standard of care plus genetic information
Behavioral: genetic risk score for coronary risk factors
genetic risk score based on coronary artery disease genetic risk variants (SNPs)
No Intervention: usual standard of care without genetic information

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
change in LDL cholesterol
Time Frame: 6 mo
6 mo

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
change in weight
Time Frame: 6 mo
6 mo
change in exercise
Time Frame: 6 mo
6 mo
medication compliance
Time Frame: 6 mo
6 mo
non-HDL cholesterol
Time Frame: 6 mo
6 mo
blood pressure
Time Frame: 6 mo
6 mo

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Stanford University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Joshua W. Knowles, MD-PhD, Stanford University
  • Principal Investigator: Themistocles L Assimes, MD-PhD, Stanford University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

August 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2016

Study Completion (Actual)

August 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 28, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 29, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

August 1, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

October 5, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 3, 2017

Last Verified

October 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • SU-07272011-8149

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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