Abstract 13644: Depict Analysis Suggests Enrichment of Heart Valve Tissue Expression in African Rheumatic Heart Disease Patients From the RHDGen GWAS Study Cohort

Introduction: Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a sequela of rheumatic fever that results in permanent heart valve damage. While it remains the primary cause of cardiac surgery in Africa, its pathophysiology is poorly understood.Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) are ‘hypothesis-free’, genetic discovery tools for common complex diseases. Recently, our African GWAS of RHD susceptibility uncovered a novel locus (11q24.1; …