Can hidden blood mutations ignite heart disease?

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: Participants must be ≥18 years of age and meet at least one of the following criteria: * Written informed consent has been obtained for participation in the study "Deconvolution of Clonal Hematopoiesis-Associated Inflammation in Health and Disease"; OR * Participant is enrolled in the Inn.Health study and has provided written informed consent; OR * Participant is enrolled in the study "Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential and Infarct Severity in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction" and has provided written informed consent. Group A: Control Group (n=20) * Age ≥60 years * No detectable somatic variant identified by peripheral blood next-generation sequencing (NGS) * No history of stroke or myocardial infarction * No surgery within the previous 3 months * No diagnosis of a WHO-defined neoplasm * No cytopenia at study enrollment Group B: Low-Risk Clonal Hematopoiesis Risk Score (CHRS) Group (n=20) * Age ≥60 years * Somatic variant in DNMT3A, TET2, ASXL1, or JAK2 with variant allele frequency (VAF) ≥2% in peripheral blood * No history of stroke or myocardial infarction * No surgery within the previous 3 months * No diagnosis of a WHO-defined neoplasm * No cytopenia at study enrollment * Low-risk CHRS (\<9.5 points) Group C: Intermediate-/High-Risk CHRS Group (n=20) * Age ≥60 years * Somatic variant in DNMT3A, TET2, ASXL1, or JAK2 with VAF ≥2% in peripheral blood * No history of stroke or myocardial infarction * No surgery within the previous 3 months * No diagnosis of a WHO-defined neoplasm * No cytopenia at study enrollment * Intermediate- or high-risk CHRS (\>9.5 points) Group D: Clonal Cytopenia of Undetermined Significance (CCUS) Group (n=20) * Age ≥60 years * Somatic variant in DNMT3A, TET2, ASXL1, or JAK2 with VAF ≥2% in peripheral blood * No history of stroke or myocardial infarction * No surgery within the previous 3 months * No diagnosis of a WHO-defined neoplasm * Untreated, unexplained cytopenia present for ≥4 months * Hemoglobin \<13 g/dL (men) or \<12 g/dL (women), and/or absolute neutrophil count \<1.8 × 10⁹/L, and/or platelet count \<150 × 10⁹/L * No diagnostic criteria for a defined myeloid neoplasm based on bone marrow examination Group E: Cardiovascular Disease Group (n=20) * Age ≥60 years * Somatic variant in DNMT3A, TET2, ASXL1, or JAK2 with VAF ≥2% in peripheral blood * ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) treated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) within the previous 4 months * No history of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) * No history of stroke * No cytopenia at study enrollment * No diagnosis of a WHO-defined neoplasm Group F: Low-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) Group (n=20) * Age ≥60 years * Untreated, newly diagnosed (\<3 months from diagnosis) low-risk myelodysplastic syndrome according to the Revised International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS-R score \>1.5 to 3.0) * No history of stroke or myocardial infarction Exclusion Criteria: * Treatment with immunosuppressive medication within the previous 4 weeks, including but not limited to systemic corticosteroids, methotrexate, other disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), colchicine, TNF-α inhibitors, mTOR inhibitors, calcineurin inhibitors, or immunomodulatory antibodies * History of rheumatologic, autoinflammatory, or autoimmune disease