George Thanassoulis, Catherine Y Campbell, David S Owens, J Gustav Smith, Albert V Smith, Gina M Peloso, Kathleen F Kerr, Sonali Pechlivanis, Matthew J Budoff, Tamara B Harris, Rajeev Malhotra, Kevin D O'Brien, Pia R Kamstrup, Børge G Nordestgaard, Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen, Matthew A Allison, Thor Aspelund, Michael H Criqui, Susan R Heckbert, Shih-Jen Hwang, Yongmei Liu, Marketa Sjogren, Jesper van der Pals, Hagen Kälsch, Thomas W Mühleisen, Markus M Nöthen, L Adrienne Cupples, Muriel Caslake, Emanuele Di Angelantonio, John Danesh, Jerome I Rotter, Sigurdur Sigurdsson, Quenna Wong, Raimund Erbel, Sekar Kathiresan, Olle Melander, Vilmundur Gudnason, Christopher J O'Donnell, Wendy S Post
BACKGROUND: Limited information is available regarding genetic contributions to valvular calcification, which is an important precursor of clinical valve disease. METHODS: We determined genomewide associations with the presence of aortic-valve calcification (among 6942 participants) and mitral annular calcification (among 3795 participants), as detected by computed tomographic (CT) scanning; the study population for this analysis included persons of white European ancestry from three cohorts participating in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology consortium (discovery population)...
February 7, 2013: New England Journal of Medicine