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Genetic tests for an inherited heart disorder are more likely to have incorrect results in black Americans than in whites, according to a new study that is likely to have implications for other minorities and other diseases, including cancer. Mistakes have been made because earlier research linking genetic traits to illness did not include enough members of minority groups to identify differences between them and the majority white population or to draw conclusions about their risks of disease. (Grady, 8/17)

People in the healthy comparison groups in these studies were white; whereas some people in the studies with HCM apparently had some African ancestry. As a result, some of the gene variants flagged as being linked to the illness simply represented racial differences between the groups and had nothing to do with HCM. That problem would likely have been avoided if the original scientists had added four or five African Americans to the control group, Kohane says. It turns out that two of these variants commonly identified in African Americans actually don't pose a health risk at all. (Harris, 8/17)

For consumers, the idea of getting a genetic test to determine risks for hereditary diseases is becoming an increasingly common proposition, but new research suggests that sometimes the accuracy of those results may depend on what ethnicity you are. Take, for instance, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, one of the most common hereditary heart diseases. ... African Americans have traditionally been considered at higher risk for the disorder. But a study out Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that common ways to determine that level of risk may be skewed because studies have traditionally had low numbers of black participants. (Tan, 8/17)