Cardiogenetic counselling in a non-university hospital

The identification of the first gene for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in 19911 can be seen as the start of cardiogenetics, a field of cooperation between cardiologists and geneticists. Each year, more causal genes and disease-causing mutations for cardiomyopathies and primary electrical diseases are discovered2,3 and the field is rapidly expanding with major implications for patient care and management, even in asymptomatic people. At present, hereditary cardiovascular disease can be confirmed molecularly in patients and carriership can be detected in relatives. In persons at risk of developing fatal arrhythmias, treatment can be started in carriers who otherwise would not have been diagnosed yet.4,5 Cardiogenetic disorders have thus become a substantial part of daily cardiology practice, and are no longer limited to university hospitals. However, in the Netherlands genetic counselling and testing still takes places primarily in university hospitals. …