Development of a blood-based gene expression algorithm for assessment of obstructive coronary artery disease in non-diabetic patients.

Background: Alterations in gene expression in peripheral blood cells have been shown to be sensitive to the presence and extent of coronary artery disease (CAD). A non-invasive blood test that could reliably assess obstructive CAD likelihood would have diagnostic utility.

Results: Microarray analysis of RNA samples from a 195 patient Duke CATHGEN registry case:control cohort yielded 2,438 genes with significant CAD association (p < 0.