Heart disease remains the leading cause of death globally, accounting for one in three deaths, yet many of its victims show no obvious warning signs before a life-threatening event. While traditional risk assessments—such as cholesterol levels, blood pressure, smoking status, and family history—have long been used to predict cardiovascular events, they often miss individuals at high genetic risk.

One powerful but underused tool that could change this is the polygenic risk score (PRS), cardiologist Eric Topol, MD, wrote in a guest column for the Washington Post earlier this week.

What is the polygenic risk score?

Unlike monogenic risk assessments, which look for single gene variants that can cause disease, polygenic risk scores (PRS) aggregate the effects of thousands of genetic variants

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