Gene therapy in the management of cardiovascular diseases.

Gene therapy is about to create a revolution in the available methods to limit and correct many of the common disease processes involving the heart. Since the human genome was published in draft form a year ago there has been an explosion of scientific activity to translate the DNA code into a language which we can understand in terms of molecular biology and function. The technology is now readily available to test for small variations in the DNA code (Single Nucleotide Ploymorphisms or SNPs) which can explain individual susceptibility to hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, thrombosis, inflammatory response, infection, multiple organ failure and countless other common complications of cardiac surgery.