Genetic copy number variants in myocardial infarction patients with hyperlipidemia

Cardiovascular disease is the chief cause of death in Taiwan and many countries, of which myocardial infarction (MI) is the most serious condition. Hyperlipidemia appears to be a significant cause of myocardial infarction, because it causes atherosclerosis directly. In recent years, copy number variation (CNV) has been analyzed in genomewide association studies of complex diseases. In this study, CNV was analyzed in blood samples and SNP arrays from 31 myocardial infarction patients with hyperlipidemia. We identified seven CNV regions that were associated significantly with hyperlipidemia and myocardial infarction in our patients through multistage analysis (P