BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Genet.
Sec. Applied Genetic Epidemiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1625822
Impact of Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) for Coronary Artery Disease on Physician Decision-Making and Patient Care
Provisionally accepted
Georgios Ntritsos1*
Erez Ornan2Nir Gamliel2Gil Chernin3
Arnold Pallay4Michael Chen2Efi Kessous2Eran Feldhay2- 1University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
- 2OpenDNA, Haifa, Israel
- 3Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
- 4Consensus Medical Group / Atlantic Health System, New Jersey, United States
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Introduction: Polygenic risk scores (PRS) have emerged as a promising tool for refining cardiovascular risk prediction, yet their real-world impact on physician decision-making remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate how the integration of a coronary artery disease (CAD) PRS with traditional clinical risk factors influences physician management strategies.We conducted a multicenter, prospective, open-label pilot study across three clinical sites. A total of 150 patients (aged 18-55 years, LDL-C ≤130 mg/dL, no history of diabetes or coronary artery disease) were recruited. Buccal swabs were collected for PRS analysis, and results were integrated with clinical data to generate personalized risk profiles. Physicians utilized these profiles during consultations and completed structured feedback surveys assessing PRS influence on their clinical decisions.Results: PRS findings impacted clinical decision-making in 67% of cases (100 participants). The most frequent physician response was raising patient awareness and offering patient education (73 cases), while emphasizing PRS as a tool for risk communication. In 4 specific cases, PRS findings led to new statin recommendations, while 23 cases resulted in other management modifications, including lifestyle adjustments and increased risk monitoring.Discussion: These findings highlight the potential of PRS in enhancing risk communication and clinical decision-making, primarily by reinforcing patient awareness rather than directly by altering pharmacologic management. Further research is needed to optimize PRS implementation and assess its long-term clinical impact.
Keywords: Polygenic risk score (PRS), Coronary artery disease (CAD), Cardiovascular Risk Assessment, personalized medicine, genetic risk stratification, clinical decision-making, Patient awareness, statin therapy
Received: 09 May 2025; Accepted: 14 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ntritsos, Ornan, Gamliel, Chernin, Pallay, Chen, Kessous and Feldhay. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Georgios Ntritsos, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.