Rationale and design of the Leipzig (LIFE) Heart Study: phenotyping and cardiovascular characteristics of patients with coronary artery disease.
OBJECTIVE
We established the Leipzig (LIFE) Heart Study, a biobank and database of patients with different stages of coronary artery disease (CAD) for studies of clinical, metabolic, cellular and genetic factors of cardiovascular diseases.


METHODS
The Leipzig (LIFE) Heart Study (NCT00497887) is an ongoing observational angiographic study including subjects with different entities of CAD. Cohort 1, patients undergoing first-time diagnostic coronary angiography due to suspected stable CAD with previously untreated coronary arteries. Cohort 2, patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) requiring percutaneous revascularization. Cohort 3, patients with known left main coronary artery disease (LMCAD).


RESULTS
We present preliminary results of demographics and phenotyping based on a 4-years analysis of a total of 3,165 subjects. Cohort 1 (n=2,274) shows the typical distribution of elective coronary angiography cohorts with 43% cases with obstructive CAD and 37% normal angiograms. Cohorts 2 and 3 consist of 590 and 301 subjects, respectively, adding patients with severe forms of CAD. The suitability of the database and biobank to perform association studies was confirmed by replication of the CAD susceptibility locus on chromosome 9p21 (OR per allele: 1.55 (any CAD), 1.54 (MI), 1.74 (LMCAD), p<10(-6), respectively). A novel finding was that patients with LMCAD had a stronger association with 9p21 than patients with obstructive CAD without LMCAD (OR 1.22, p=0.042). In contrast, 9p21 did not associate with myocardial infarction in excess of stable CAD.


CONCLUSIONS
The Leipzig (LIFE) Heart Study provides a basis to identify molecular targets related to atherogenesis and associated metabolic disorders. The study may contribute to an improvement of individual prediction, prevention, and treatment of CAD.
Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics, University Hospital Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Frank
F
Beutner
Daniel
D
Teupser
Stephan
S
Gielen
Lesca Miriam
LM
Holdt
Markus
M
Scholz
Enno
E
Boudriot
Gerhard
G
Schuler
Joachim
J
Thiery
D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D002899:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 9; D015331:Cohort Studies; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010641:Phenotype; D012107:Research Design; D012307:Risk Factors