People who are at most risk for heart attacks present a specific genetic marker in the blood and this new and important marker has been identified by an Italian study published in the prestigious journal Plos One. The pilot study permits the prompt identification of people of high risk to be urgently treated, the study said.

Coronary heart disease and its main complication, myocardial infarct or heart attack, kills some 70,000 people in Italy a year. The team behind the new study looked at the links between lifestyle and heredity.  The study was led by Giuseppe Novelli, head of the medical genetics lab at the Tor Vergata Policlinico university hospital, and by Francesco Romeo, head of cardiology at the university.