The children of parents with heart failure have an increased likelihood of developing the condition themselves, new findings from the Framingham Offspring Study suggest.

"If our findings are confirmed, there would be added justification for adding heart failure to the list of conditions that one can inquire about when obtaining family history of medical disorders from patients," Dr. Vasan S. Ramachandran told Reuters Health.

Ramachandran, from Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues investigated whether a parental history of heart failure increased the risk of impaired function of the left ventricle of the heart -- its main pumping chamber -- or overt heart failure in the offspring, using data from study participants.

The offspring of parents with heart failure had higher rates of increased left ventricular dysfunction and dimensions than did offspring whose parents did not have heart failure, the investigators report.

During a 20-year follow-up, the presence of parental heart failure was associated with higher rates of heart failure in the offspring, the researchers found. The adjusted rate of heart failure was 70 percent higher than in those without parental heart failure, according to the report, published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Not surprisingly, the presence of heart failure in both parents increased the risk of heart failure in the offspring more than did heart failure in only one parent, the report indicates.

"Our demonstration of an increased familial risk of heart failure suggests, but does not establish, a causal relation of genetic factors to the disease process," the team concludes.

"We have several ongoing studies evaluating the genetic underpinnings of heart failure ... including but not limited to studies of select candidate genes," Ramachandran added.

SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine, July 13, 2006.