Genetic Architecture of Quantitative Cardiovascular Imaging and Electrocardiographic Traits

Quantitative cardiovascular phenotypes such as blood pressure and measurements derived from electrocardiogram and cardiac imaging play a dominant role in the assessment of cardiovascular health. They are important endophenotypes that represent a wide spectrum of variation reflecting normal physiology to an overt pathology. These phenotypes are known to be highly heritable and can be modulated by the genes, environment and their intricate interplay. Typically, the genetic basis of such phenotypes is investigated with genome-wide association studies (GWASs). Downstream utilities of GWAS results include: (i) estimation of heritability; (ii) examination of genetic correlations which detect and quantify pleiotropy; (iii) identification of candidate causal genes which explain the biology and may lead to novel therapies and drug repurposing opportunities; (iv) construction of polygenic risk scores; and (v) creation of genetic instruments for Mendelian randomization studies to explore causal relationships.

This research topic aims to gather the evidence generated from the genome-wide analyses of quantitative complex cardiovascular traits and provide a summary of insights gained from the downstream investigations of GWAS data.

We welcome studies that report the GWASs of quantitative cardiovascular phenotypes, heritability and genetic correlation analyses, pharmacogenomics, applications of polygenic risk scores and Mendelian randomization. We will accept papers in the following formats: original research articles, mini-reviews, methodology papers and systematic reviews.