Background: This study aimed to evaluate the association of the CYP11B2 C(-344)T polymorphism with cardiorenal phenotypes and atherosclerosis in patients with DM. Methods: A total of 269 patients with DM (180 with type 2 and 89 with type 1 diabetes)...
Somatic hematopoietic mutations, particularly clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP), represent an emerging link between aging, inflammation and cardiovascular disease beyond their established relevance in hematology. This narrative r...
Non-dilated left ventricular cardiomyopathy (NDLVC) presents a unique clinical paradox: patients with nearly identical phenotypes can face radically different clinical outcomes. NDLVC has been recently recognized as a distinct dynamic phenotype withi...
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) accounts for a substantial share of deaths in young individuals. Despite postmortem pathological, toxicological, and forensic examination and molecular autopsy, many cases remain unexplained, highlighting the need for compl...
Background: Contemporary series report declining sudden cardiac death (SCD) in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), but whether this reflects fewer arrhythmic events or a greater proportion of deaths successfully prevented is unclear. We examined the p...
The 2025 Editor’s Choice papers [...]
Mosaic loss of the Y chromosome (mLOY) is a common karyotype alteration. The accumulation of LOY cells leads to genetic mosaicism and affects the development of pathological conditions in elderly men. Emerging data suggest that this phenomenon might...
Background: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) exhibits clinical heterogeneity and age-related penetrance, yet its molecular basis across adulthood remains incompletely understood. This study aimed to characterize age-dependent transcriptomic signatur...
Background: Ischemic stroke (IS) is a major cause of global disability, with outcomes increasingly dictated by post-ischemic neuroinflammation. Despite advances in reperfusion, many patients experience neurological decline due to divergent inflammato...
Background: Heritable thoracic aortic disease (HTAD) accounts for approximately 20–25% of thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection (TAAD) cases and is a major cause of premature death in young adults. Methods: This is a narrative, non-systematic...
Background: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common monogenic cardiac disorder (prevalence 1:500), a major substrate of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in adolescents and young adults, and is modulated by regulatory mechanisms including non-c...
Background: Pediatric dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a genetically heterogeneous disorder with limited population-specific genetic data in Middle Eastern cohorts. Methods: Twenty-three pediatric DCM patients from a predominantly Kurdish–Arab c...
Background: Inherited arrhythmic syndromes (IAS) are an important but under-recognized cause of sudden cardiac death (SCD), particularly in younger individuals. Understanding long-term mortality trends is essential to evaluate their public health imp...
Congenital heart defects (CHDs) are the most common congenital anomalies, with identifiable genetic etiologies in approximately 5–30% of affected infants, depending on the clinical presentation and comorbidities. This study included 216 childre...
Background: Heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HeFH) is characterized by elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and increased cardiovascular risk, making early diagnosis essential; however, the diagnostic performance of pediatr...
Noonan syndrome (NS) is a paradigmatic rare, genetically heterogeneous, multisystem disorder belonging to the RASopathies family, caused by dysregulated RAS/MAPK signaling. It is characterized by distinctive craniofacial features, postnatal short sta...
Background: Genetic testing in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) yields variable positivity rates. Identifying clinical predictors of positive genetic tests could improve pre-test counseling and refine expectations about diagnostic yield. Methods: We...
Background/Objectives: Coronary artery disease (CAD) remains the leading cause of mortality worldwide, with South Asia bearing a disproportionately high and rising burden, particularly at younger ages. The present study aimed to investigate genetic v...
Endocrine disorders are increasingly recognized as major contributors to secondary cardiomyopathies, leading to profound alterations in cardiac structure and function. This comprehensive review synthesizes current evidence on the genetic basis of car...
In this study, we have performed computational PTM analysis on a panel of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)-associated proteins: MYH7, MYBPC3, TNNT2, and TNNI3. We aimed to benchmark the prediction of PTM sites of three ML-based tools: MusiteDeep, PT...
Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a major global health issue, defined as sudden natural death presumed to be of cardiac cause. While in the elderly SCD is commonly associated with coronary artery disease, in the younger population it is linked to inheri...
Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is a temporary and reversible form of cardiomyopathy that clinically mimics acute coronary syndrome, typically triggered by intense physical or emotional stress. It mainly affects postmenopausal women and exhibits significant...
Myocarditis is a complex inflammatory myocardial disease. Although traditionally regarded as exclusively immune-mediated, recent evidence highlights the significant role of underlying genetics on susceptibility, phenotypic variability, and long-term...
Mitral annular disjunction (MAD) is associated with an increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death, yet its genetic background remains poorly defined. We report the case of a 50-year-old man with MAD who survived cardiac arrest...
Background: PRKAG2 cardiac syndrome is a rare autosomal dominant glycogen-storage cardiomyopathy that mimics sarcomeric hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) but features ventricular pre-excitation, progressive conduction disease and concentric hypertrop...
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the most common inherited cardiac disorder, is usually caused by pathogenic variants in sarcomeric genes and is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner. Around 5% of cases are caused by variants in non-sarcomeric...
Danon Disease (DD) is a rare X-linked autophagic vacuolar myopathy caused by pathogenic variants in the lysosome-associated membrane protein 2 (LAMP-2) gene. Alternative splicing of the terminal exon 9 leads to the creation of three different isoform...
Introduction: Clinical variability within families harbouring disease-causing genetic variants hampers clinical care and risk stratification. We studied a multigenerational family presenting with sinus bradycardia and long QT syndrome type 2 (LQTS2)....
Background: PRKAG2-related disease is an autosomal dominant disorder caused by pathogenic variants in the PRKAG2 gene, leading to glycogen accumulation in cardiomyocytes. It is characterized by left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), ventricular pre-exci...
Background: Regular endurance training induces physiological changes in cardiac structure and function. The precise epigenetic mechanisms by which cardiovascular adaptations are mediated are still unclear. This review seeks to clarify the role of epi...
Congenital genetic heart defects are major contributors to pediatric morbidity and mortality, underscoring the importance of early detection and individualized therapeutic strategies. This review aimed to summarize current knowledge on a spectrum of...
Background: Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) aggregate the effects of many common genetic variants and are being investigated as tools to refine coronary artery disease (CAD) risk prediction beyond traditional clinical models. Methods and Results: We rev...
Dystrophinopathies, including Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies (DMD and BMD), are inherited neuromuscular disorders frequently complicated by progressive cardiac involvement, ultimately leading to advanced heart failure. While heart transplan...
This study investigates the genetic background of pediatric-onset cardiac channelopathies, a rare group of genetic disorders causing arrhythmias and sometimes sudden death, whose genetic background remains partially unknown. The research analyzed 59...
Background: Ebstein’s anomaly (EA) is a rare congenital heart defect characterized by failure of tricuspid valve delamination during embryogenesis. Left ventricular (LV) hypertrabeculation results from incomplete myocardial compaction during fe...
Background: The renin–angiotensin system (RAS) is pivotal in regulating cardiovascular function, while cardio-genomics offers insights into genetic factors influencing cardiovascular disease (CVD) susceptibility. Aim: This study investigates the rela...
Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathies (ACMs) are a phenotypically and etiologically heterogeneous group of myocardial disorders characterized by fibrotic or fibro-fatty replacement of ventricular myocardium, electrical instability, and an elevated risk of...
Background: Cardiac involvement is common in Fabry disease (FD) and typically manifests with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). Patients with FD are frequently misdiagnosed, and this is mainly related to the lack of disease awareness among clinician...
Variants in ELAC2, a gene encoding the mitochondrial RNase Z enzyme essential for mitochondrial tRNA processing, have been associated with severe pediatric-onset mitochondrial dysfunction, primarily presenting with developmental delay, hypertrophic c...
Background: Leigh’s Disease is a rare mitochondrial disorder primarily affecting the central nervous system, with frequent secondary cardiac manifestations such as hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies. Early detection of cardiac complicati...
The standard immunosuppressive treatments in heart transplantation are calcineurin inhibitors, corticosteroids, and antimetabolite agents or inhibitors of the mammalian target of rapamycin. Pharmacogenetic studies show the impact on clinical course o...
Brugada syndrome (BrS) has been traditionally considered a pure electrical disorder without an underlying structural substrate. However, early ECG studies showed the presence of depolarization abnormalities in this condition, while many studies based...
Mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS) syndrome is a rare disease with variable clinical manifestations. MELAS is most often caused by the human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) m.3243A>G variant. We des...
Background: Early-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) exhibits distinct clinical and genetic profiles compared to AF in older adults. The increasing detection of AF among younger patients—often in the absence of traditional risk factors—has ra...
(1) Objective: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are one of the main entities responsible for the progressive increase in morbidity and mortality worldwide. Some of the biomarkers involved in these processes are matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) and disinte...
Background: Laminopathies are a heterogenous group of heritable diseases caused by variants in the Lamin A/C gene (LMNA). They manifest as cardiac and muscular myopathies, lipodystrophies, neuropathies, and progeria. Cardiac manifestations include di...
In hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), the presence of pathogenic/likely pathogenic (P/LP) disease-causing genetic variants may indicate a worse prognosis. Few data exist on the effects of these genetic variants on cardiopulmonary exercise test (CPET)...
Ellis-van Creveld syndrome (EvC) is a rare genetic disorder (7:10,000,000) caused by biallelic pathogenic variants in EVC and EVC2, which are located in close proximity on chromosome 4p16.2 in a divergent orientation. These genes encode ciliary compl...
Myocardial Bridging (MB) is typically a benign congenital coronary anomaly. MB can infrequently result in complications such as myocardial ischemia, arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death. Recent studies suggest an underlying genetic component for MB...
The GPD1L gene encodes a small cytoplasmic protein that is involved in the regulation of sodium currents. Alterations in this gene have been associated with Brugada syndrome. This rare arrhythmogenic syndrome is characterized by a typical electrocard...
