Nicholas A. Marston, MD, MPH, of the TIMI Study Group and Carl J. and Ruth Shapiro Cardiovascular Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital, is the corresponding author of a paper published in Nature Medicine, "Clonal hematopoiesis, cardiovascular events and treatment benefit in 63,700 individuals from five TIMI randomized trials.
" How would you summarize your study for a lay audience? Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) is a condition that promotes the multiplication of blood stem cells in the body and increases the risk of heart disease and stroke in patients. It is caused by specific gene mutations that can occur as people age, often found in patients over 60 years old. Our team analyzed data from 63,700 patients from five different clinical trials for heart disease treatments.
Over a two-year period, we observed how many patients with and without CHIP had heart-related problems, such as heart attacks, strokes and heart-related procedures. We found that CHIP had the strongest association with first heart attack and was not associated with recurrent cardiac events. We also found that patients with CHIP benefit from a range of heart therapies to a similar degree as those without CHIP.
What knowledge gaps does your study help to fill? There are two main knowledge gaps that are addressed in this analysis. The first is the question of which populations may benefit from knowing if they have CHIP mutations. We found that a primary prevention population, those with.