Are Genetic Tests Useful Part 2

I'm a healthy person from a mostly long-lived family, and I frankly don't give much thought to when I might get sick or die. I also know that DeCode's test did not factor in my family history, which is still the best indicator for one's proclivity for heritable diseases. No one in my family has had serious heart disease.

You 2.0 Series Comparison Shopping for Your Future Part 1: Personal genetic tests are proliferating; some are even online. Do they really tell you anything?

A few weeks after Stefansson's call, I got more genetic results on his company's new online testing service, DeCodeMe, which provided my risk factors for heart attack and 17 other diseases. (The company charges $995 for the service—a fee it waives for some journalists, including me—and delivers its results over the Web.)

I logged onto to the DeCodeme website, found my results, and immediately went to "myocardial infarction"—which the site now refers to by the more familiar "heart attack." I surprised myself by feeling a tinge of apprehension, wondering if Stefansson could be right.

Imagine my surprise when I saw my results. For the two genetic markers tested on DeCodeMe, my risk for heart attack was not high—it was lower than average. On my own crude Excel chart (see below) it was a threat level below average, which I color coded yellow. Based on the two genetic markers tested by DeCode, I was 0.86 for one, and 1 for the other. (I put average risk ratings in black, medium risks in orange, and high risks in red.)

If all this wasn't confusing enough, a few weeks later, I accessed the other two major online consumer sites, 23andme and Navigenics (then in a prelaunch beta form), and again got heart-jolting results. Navigenics agreed with Kari Stefansson's original assessment that I was at high risk, giving me scores of 1.72 and 1.53 for their two markers—threat level "red" on my personal scale. 23andme's results were 1.23 times average—a medium risk, threat level "orange."


^{*The link between these markers and this gene has not been confirmed.
**This is a risk assessed for men age 45 to 84; the others are a lifetime risk.} Enlarge this chart

I asked myself: What the heck? Which is it, high, medium or low risk?