Abstract
Our understanding of the genetics of congenital heart disease (CHD) is rapidly expanding; however, many questions, particularly those relating to sporadic forms of disease, remain unanswered. Massively parallel sequencing technology has made significant contributions to the field, both from a diagnostic perspective for patients and, importantly, also from the perspective of disease mechanism. The importance of de novo variation in sporadic disease is a recent highlight, and the genetic link between heart and brain development has been established. Furthermore, evidence of an underlying burden of genetic variation contributing to sporadic and familial forms of CHD has been identified. Although we are still unable to identify the cause of CHD for most patients, recent findings have provided us with a much clearer understanding of the types of variants and their individual contributions and collectively mark an important milestone in our understanding of both familial and sporadic forms of disease.
Keywords
chromosome aberrations
comparative genomic hybridization
genome-wide association study
high-throughput nucleotide sequencing
molecular diagnosis
patient care
MeSH Terms
Heart Defects, Congenital/diagnosis,genetics,therapy
Humans
Authors & Affiliations
7 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Blue Gillian M
Kids Heart Research, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, Australia; Heart Centre for Children, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, Australia; Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Australia.
Kirk Edwin P
Department of Medical Genetics, Sydney Children's Hospital, Sydney, Australia; School of Women's and Children's Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Giannoulatou Eleni
Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia; St Vincent's Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Sholler Gary F
Kids Heart Research, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, Australia; Heart Centre for Children, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, Australia; Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Australia.
Dunwoodie Sally L
Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia; St Vincent's Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Harvey Richard P
Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, Darlinghurst, Sydney, Australia; St Vincent's Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney.
Winlaw David S
Kids Heart Research, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, Australia; Heart Centre for Children, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, Australia; Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Australia. Electronic address:
[email protected].