The current study employed a multi-stage design using a linkage scan, a GWAS dataset, and replication in independent samples to identify genetic variants associated with CaD. Specifically, the objectives of the current study were to: 1) conduct a genomewide linkage scan to detect genetic loci influencing CaD risk in African-Americans (AAs) and European-Americans (EAs); 2) assess the genetic association between CaD and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) under the strongest linkage peak using the GWAS dataset from SAGE; and 3) replicate prioritized SNPs in independent AAs and EAs from our samples.
