In 1948, the Framingham Heart Study began when the Original Cohort was enrolled [70]. Beginning in 1971, the Offspring Cohort was enrolled (5,124 participants); the methodology and design has been described. In 2002, the Third Generation cohort was enrolled (n = 4095) [71]. Participants for this study were drawn from the Framingham Heart Study Multi-detector Computed Tomography (MDCT) Study, a population-based sub-study of the community-based Framingham Heart Study Offspring and Third Generation cohorts. Participants for the current study were drawn from the MDCT sub-study. Between June 2002 to April 2005, 3529 participants (2111 Third Generation, 1418 Offspring participants) underwent MDCT assessment of coronary and aortic calcium. Inclusion in this study was weighted towards participants from larger Framingham Heart Study families and those who resided in the Greater New England area. Men had to be at least 35 years of age, women had to be at least 40 years of age and non-pregnant, and all participants had to weigh less than 350 pounds. Of the total of 3529 subjects imaged, 3394 had interpretable CT measures, 3329 of whom had both SAT and VAT measured, and 3158 participated in the present GWAS study.
