Copenhagen Heart Study

The Copenhagen City Heart Study and Copenhagen General Population Studies are prospective cardiovascular population studies comprising random samples of residents from the City of Copenhagen in Denmark. The Copenhagen Heart Study started in 1976 and was modeled after the Framingham Heart Study. These large and ambitious studies are funded by the Danish government and leverage a unique healthcare system that enables Denmark to track all in-patient medical events of Danish citizens.

Our Study

BG Medicine is conducting a study with the Copenhagen Heart Study and Copenhagen General Population Study in conjunction with the HRP Initiative. The study involves 250 subjects (cases) who suffered a first heart attack within four years of entering in the Copenhagen General Population Study. At the time of their entry into the Copenhagen General Population Study, the case subjects were free of cardiovascular disease. A total of 500 subjects are matched controls with no cardiovascular disease.

The study aims to answer an important question: can novel blood markers reliably predict the risk of a first heart-attack? Currently the gold standard for cardiovascular risk prediction is the Framingham Risk Score. It has long been known that the Framingham risk score is of limited use in predicting relative risk in relation to the first cardiac event. Preliminary analysis of the Copenhagen Heart Study shows that the Framingham Risk Score judged only a third of the people who suffered a heart attack at high risk for a heart attack, while at the same time, a quarter of the people who did not develop a heart attack (controls) were also considered at high risk.

The laboratory analysis of measuring hundreds of proteins and metabolites (small molecules) in the approximately 750 samples has begun and the first phase of this study will be completed in third quarter of 2008.

What Makes the Study Unique?

• Size: The study is larger than other studies with 250 cases vs. 500 controls.
• Homogeneity: The study only includes subjects with heart attacks who survived. This creates a very homogenous group of participants
• Number of Measurements: The study will measure hundreds of different molecules of which many have never been study in their relationship to heart attacks. Similar studies only measure up to ten different blood markers
• Validation: Access to other Copenhagen cohorts to validate any newly discovered markers.