Abstract

Epidemiological studies suggest genetic predisposition is important in stroke risk. Monogenic conditions are important for the individual patient but do not account for much population attributable risk. An increasing number of such conditions are being described, particularly for the small vessel disease stroke subtype. The candidate genes approach has proved disappointing in identifying genes contributing to the risk of multifactorial or polygenic stroke. This is a situation shared with other complex diseases. Recently the GWAS (genome-wide association study) approach has identified genetic loci for many other cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension, and is just being applied to stroke. Some novel genetic variants initially associated with other cardiovascular diseases have recently been identified as risk factors in stroke populations.