Lay summary
Current screening tools for cardiovascular risk fail to identify many high-risk individuals, with more than 50% of heart disease deaths occurring in people assessed by their GP to be low-moderate risk. This project tests whether adding information from our DNA (epigenetics) to traditional risk factors can help identify susceptible individuals before the onset of symptoms. We will profile epigenetic markers in DNA samples prospectively collected from asymptomatic people of middle-older age, prior to an unexpected cardiovascular event. This will allow us to perform an epigenetic association study and develop an epigenetic score to predict near future cardiovascular events. Our study will show whether adding a simple blood test result and epigenetic score, alongside traditional risk factors, could improve our ability to identify people at impending risk of a heart attack. This could help guide GPs in their management cardiovascular risk factors and reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease in New Zealand.