What research holds promise for treating heart disease?

What research holds promise for treating heart disease?

Rose Marie Robertson, MD, FAHA, FACC, FESC (Chief Science Officer and Past President of the Board of American Heart Association) gives expert video advice on: What do I do if I think I'm having a heart attack?; How can I examine myself for heart disease?; What questions should I ask my doctor if I am diagnosed with a heart condition? and more...

One area of advance that I think will clearly benefit the patient in the future is the whole area of our ability to look at a patient's own genetics and decide what treatments will be best for them. We know that people vary tremendously in terms of their genetic predisposition for disease, but they also vary in terms of how they respond to medications. We know, for example, already, using information from the Human Genome Project, that patients with one form of a gene versus another will take and require very different doses of a commonly-prescribed blood thinner in atrial fibrillation, a blood thinner called Warfarin. We expect that that kind of information will be applied to many different medications in the future. We'll be able to asses very quickly which genes a person has that will affect their response to medications, and then pick a medication regimen for them that will be really, truly personalized medicine--medicine that will give them the greatest benefit and the least risk of side-effects.