Researchers note that only 1 percent of people may be affected
WEDNESDAY, June 17, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Individuals with inherited chromosomally integrated human herpesvirus 6 (iciHHV-6) may face three times the risk of angina as others, according to new research published online June 15 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
To assess whether iciHHV-6 had any impact on health, “we opted to conduct a large population study on 20,000 healthy and diseased individuals aged between 40 to 69 years old, the ages where chronic diseases are most often observed,” study coauthor Louis Flamand, Ph.D., vice chair of the department of microbiology-immunology at Laval University in Quebec City, told HealthDay.
The researchers discovered an association when they checked their statistics for higher rates of angina. The risk of angina for those with iciHHV-6 rose from 3 to 10 percent, although the findings don’t prove that the chromosome abnormality is the cause of the angina.
“Our results indicate that the prevalence of angina is three times greater in iciHHV-6+ subjects relative to iciHHV-6− ones,” the authors write. “Furthermore, iciHHV-6+ subjects have shorter telomeres, a result that may explain, at least in part, how iciHHV-6 may contribute to the development of angina.”
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