Book Review

Cardiovascular Genetics and Genomics for the Cardiologist

N Engl J Med 2008; 358:977February 28, 2008

Article

Cardiovascular Genetics and Genomics for the Cardiologist
Edited by Victor J. Dzau and Choong-Chin Liew. 308 pp., illustrated. Malden, MA, Blackwell Futura, 2007. $144.95. ISBN: 978-1-4051-3394-4

The aim of this book is to explain modern genetics and genomics to clinical cardiologists, and it is achieved exceedingly well throughout the 12 clearly written and illustrated chapters. The first chapter provides a brief history of genetics, which quickly leads into a discussion of the Human Genome Project and gene chips. It also includes a brief but well-written primer of genes and genomics. The rest of the book's chapters are divided into three parts. Part I tackles single-gene disorders, including monogenic hypercholesterolemia, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, other cardiomyopathies, and the long-QT syndrome. Part II takes up more complex polygenic disorders of the cardiovascular system, including hypertension, atherosclerosis, and heart failure. Lastly, part III is titled “Therapies and Applications,” but it would have been more accurately titled “New Therapeutic and Diagnostic Applications.” Here we learn about gene therapy, stem-cell therapy, pharmacogenetics, and the use of gene-expression profiling for diagnosis.

There are many controversies in this area of medicine, especially related to the therapies that are discussed in part III, yet the editors and authors succeed in providing an account of these new fields that is as unbiased and measured as possible. Chapter 10, a description of stem-cell therapy for cardiovascular disease, is the chapter that is most likely to catch the eye of any interventional cardiologist. It is highly informative and well written, with a focus on facts and an exemplary avoidance of the kind of hype that is found in many reviews on stem cells. A timely message that emerges from this chapter is that in order to fulfill expectations, this new therapeutic approach requires close cooperation and collaboration between basic and clinical researchers.

There are, however, some weaknesses in this book. Any book that addresses topics under dynamic development will inevitably miss recent, groundbreaking data. The developments in the HapMap Project, combined with high-throughput genotyping platforms, brought about a plethora of studies on the use of genomewide association for the dissection of complex polygenic disorders. Several of these studies, published in late 2007, are pertinent to cardiovascular diseases but were published too late to be included in this book. Simply said, the promise of notable discoveries about to happen, which is expressed toward the end of several chapters on complex traits, has come true. The book is not seriously flawed, though, and the critical and clinically relevant commentary handsomely rewards readers for their patience regarding some outdated references.

Anna F. Dominiczak, M.D.
University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8TA, United Kingdom
ad7e@clinmed.gla.ac.uk