Genomics and the Cardiac Surgeon

  Until recently, genetics was a course relegated to Saturdays in medical school, and molecular biology was a subject you could only discuss while smoking a pipe. Now, some gene polymorphisms may predict perioperative trouble more precisely than a 10% ejection fraction. Gene chips will soon permit designer therapy and a micro‐array “signature” will soon become fundamental to pre‐operative risk stratification. It is time for the cardiac surgical community to come aboard.