Cardiovascular Genetics: A News Round-Up Selected News Items Summarized by Wolfgang Lieb, MD; Ramachandran S. Vasan, MD Mutations in Sarcomeric Protein Genes Account for a Substantial Proportion of Idiopathic Cardiac Hypertrophy in Children

Principal Findings The authors identified mutations in almost half of children without a positive family history of cardiomyopathy (25 of 51 affected children) and in two thirds (21 of 33) of affected children with familial cardiomyopathy. Mutations in MYH7 (encoding -myosin heavy chain) and MYBPC3 (encoding myosin-binding protein C) were the most frequent variants identified in the children. In the subgroup with sporadic (nonfamilial) cardiac hypertrophy, boys were more likely than girls to harbor mutations.