Familial occurrence in cardiovascular diseases. Cardiovascular involvement in genetic disorders (2)

Current knowledge and assumptions about inheritance of cardiovascular diseases are reported in this review. They are examined from two different points of view. In the first section (familial cardiovascular diseases) discussion centered on main cardiovascular diseases with a definite clinical and pathophysiological feature in which familial occurrence has been extensively demonstrated. The genetic aspects of the primary cardiomyopathies, mitral valve prolapse, arrhythmias and conduction disturbances, long QT syndromes and abnormalities of ventricular repolarization, cardiovascular malformations, coronary artery disease, essential hypertension and rheumatic fever were examined. In this section discussion will be confined to the inherited multisystem disorders involving the cardiovascular system that most frequently occur in clinical practice. Currently known cardiovascular findings in relationship to chromosomal aberrations, connective tissue disorders, metabolic and enzymatic disorders, neuromuscular disorders and other rarer syndromes will be reported.