Recurrent and founder mutations in inherited cardiac diseases in the Netherlands

Since the start of joint outpatient clinics with both cardiologists and clinical geneticists, in 1996, both the number of patients and the research activities in this field have tremendously grown. In 2001, around 600 patients were evaluated for a cardiological disorder in all Dutch departments of clinical genetics, being nearly 5% of all patients evaluated at a department of clinical genetics at that time. These figures rose to 2500 and 10%, respectively, in 2007. This growth can be attributed to several factors such as the expanding possibilities of DNA testing in potentially inherited cardiac disorders, highly motivated people working hard in the joint cardiogenetics outpatient clinics that are now available at all university medical centres and some secondary hospitals, and last but not least growing awareness of cardiologists that part of their daily clinical practice actually deals with families instead of individual patients.