Review Article
Genetic Testing for Cardiomyopathy in Japan 2022: Current Status and Issues of Precision Medicine

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2022.11.017Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • The use of genetic testing in routine practice is presently limited in Japan.

  • A genetic diagnosis is useful for early diagnosis through cascade genetic screening in the family, differentiating secondary cardiomyopathies and predicting prognosis.

  • It is necessary to develop an ethnicity-specific genetic database of cardiomyopathy, including a catalog of variants with well-evaluated pathogenicity.

Abstract

Although many causative genes for primary cardiomyopathy have been identified, the use of genetic testing in routine practice is limited in Japan presently. Genetic diagnosis has been reported to be useful for early diagnosis through cascade genetic screening in the family, differentiating secondary cardiomyopathies, and predicting prognosis in some patients; nonetheless, the acquisition of genetic information for cardiomyopathy is stagnating in actual clinical practice. There seem to be a number of reasons for this phenomenon, and although the use of next-generation sequencers has resolved some of the past issues, the importance of pathogenicity studies of variants that are identified is growing. To ensure that patients with cardiomyopathy and their relatives can receive precision medicine, the results of genetic analysis linked to clinical information need to be collected, and a database of variants in Japanese people needs to be established.

Key Words

Cardiomyopathy
genetic testing
precision medicine

Cited by (0)

Conflict of Interest: None declared.