PLoS ONE (Jan 2019)

GWAS of QRS duration identifies new loci specific to Hispanic/Latino populations.

  • Brenton R Swenson,
  • Tin Louie,
  • Henry J Lin,
  • Raúl Méndez-Giráldez,
  • Jennifer E Below,
  • Cathy C Laurie,
  • Kathleen F Kerr,
  • Heather Highland,
  • Timothy A Thornton,
  • Kelli K Ryckman,
  • Charles Kooperberg,
  • Elsayed Z Soliman,
  • Amanda A Seyerle,
  • Xiuqing Guo,
  • Kent D Taylor,
  • Jie Yao,
  • Susan R Heckbert,
  • Dawood Darbar,
  • Lauren E Petty,
  • Barbara McKnight,
  • Susan Cheng,
  • Natalie A Bello,
  • Eric A Whitsel,
  • Craig L Hanis,
  • Mike A Nalls,
  • Daniel S Evans,
  • Jerome I Rotter,
  • Tamar Sofer,
  • Christy L Avery,
  • Nona Sotoodehnia

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217796
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 6
p. e0217796

Abstract

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BackgroundThe electrocardiographically quantified QRS duration measures ventricular depolarization and conduction. QRS prolongation has been associated with poor heart failure prognosis and cardiovascular mortality, including sudden death. While previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified 32 QRS SNPs across 26 loci among European, African, and Asian-descent populations, the genetics of QRS among Hispanics/Latinos has not been previously explored.MethodsWe performed a GWAS of QRS duration among Hispanic/Latino ancestry populations (n = 15,124) from four studies using 1000 Genomes imputed genotype data (adjusted for age, sex, global ancestry, clinical and study-specific covariates). Study-specific results were combined using fixed-effects, inverse variance-weighted meta-analysis.ResultsWe identified six loci associated with QRS (PConclusionsOur QRS duration GWAS, the first in Hispanic/Latino populations, identified two new loci, underscoring the utility of extending large scale genomic studies to currently under-examined populations.