Novel Risk Factors for Vascular Disease: The Homocysteine Hypothesis of Cardiovascular Disease

Abstract

The possibility that modest elevations in the level of blood homocysteine (hyperhomocysteinaemia) could contribute to cardiovascular disease arose from investigation of patients with rare, severe homocysteine elevations caused by cystathionine β-synthase deficiency. Such patients often had thromboembolic events before the age of 30 years. Since the established cardiovascular risk factors could only partly account for the occurrence and severity of vascular disease in the general population, other risk factors had to exist, and homocysteine elevation seemed to be a possible candidate. © 1998, European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved.