German researchers have discovered a gene, which may increase your risk of suffering a heart attack.

Researchers from the German Heart Centre think that the gene increases the risk of suffering a heart attack by around 15 per cent. The research team conducted a study involving 30,000 people and discovered that 64 per cent of those involved had the gene. The findings of the study were published in the Nature journal.

Professor Heribert Schunkert explained that the gene increases the risk of having a heart attack because it makes the platelets stickier than usual, which increases the risk of a blood clot. Blood clots interrupt the flow of blood, which may result in a heart attack.

Researchers are hoping that the findings of their study will enable doctors to assess and evaluate the risk of their patients suffering a heart attack and subsequently, this can help to plan more effective treatment.

The research team is currently working on a test, which will enable doctors to determine if their patients have the gene.

The heart attack gene is not a completely novel idea, as Japanese researchers detected a genetic mutation, which was found more frequently in people who had suffered a heart attack; the mutation, which affected one of the bases present in DNA, was believed to increase the risk of inflammation in the arteries, which impaired the easy flow of blood to the heart.