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Article History

Received: 2 March 2018

Accepted: 23 May 2018

First Online: 17 July 2018

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: All participating studies received approval by their respective local institutional review boards and ensured that written informed consent was obtained from all study participants, following the recommendations of the Declaration of Helsinki. Exome discovery and replication analyses AGES: The study is approved by the Icelandic National Bioethics Committee, (VSN: 00–063) and the Data Protection Authority. ARIC: Institutional Review Board approvals were obtained by each participating ARIC study center (the Universities of NC, MS, MN, and John Hopkins University) and the coordinating center (University of NC); the research was conducted in accordance with the principles described in the Helsinki Declaration. All participants in the ARIC study gave informed consent. For more information see dbGaP Study Accession: phs000280.v2.p1. JHSPH IRB number H.34.99.07.02.A1. Manuscript proposal number MS2572. BRIGHT: All individuals in the BRIGHT study participated as volunteers and were recruited via hypertension registers from the MRC General Practice Framework in the UK. Ethics Committee approval was obtained from the multi-and local research committees of the partner institutes, and all participants gave written informed consent. CHS: CHS was approved by institutional review committees at each site, the participants gave informed consent, and those included in the present analysis consented to the use of their genetic information for the study of cardiovascular disease. It is the position of the UW IRB that these studies of de-identified data, with no patient contact, do not constitute human subjects research. Therefore, we have neither an approval number, nor an exemption. deCODE: The deCODE Electrocardiogram (ECG) study was approved by the Data Protection Commission of Iceland and the National Bioethics Committee of Iceland (VSNb2015030024/03.01). Written informed consent was obtained from individuals donating samples. Personal identifiers associated with medical information and samples were encrypted with a third-party encryption system as provided by the Data Protection Commission of Iceland. ERF: The Medical Ethics Committee of the Erasmus University Medical Center approved the ERF study protocol and all participants, or their legal representatives, provided written informed consent. FHS: The Boston University Medical Campus Institutional Review Board approved the FHS genome-wide genotyping (protocol number H-226671). Generation Scotland: Data were collected for GS:SFHS during 2006–2011 with ethical approval from the NHS Tayside Committee on Medical Research Ethics A (ref 05/S1401/89). All participants gave written informed consent. GS:SFHS is now a Research Tissue Bank approved by the East of Scotland Research Ethics Service (ref 15/ES/0040). GOCHA: The Institutional Review Board at MGH reviewed and approved the study. Participants or their next of kin provided informed consent at the time of enrolment. GRAPHIC: GRAPHIC was approved by the Leicestershire Research Ethics Committee (LREC Ref no. 6463). Inter99: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants and the study was approved by the Scientific Ethics Committee of the Capital Region of Denmark (KA98155, H-3-2012-155) and was in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki II. KORA: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants and the study was approved by the local ethics committee (Bayerische Landesärztekammer). KORCULA: Ethical approval was given for recruitment of all Korcula study participants by ethics committees in both Scotland and Croatia. All volunteers gave informed consent before participation. Lifelines: The Lifelines study followed the recommendations of the Declaration of Helsinki and was in accordance with research code of the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG). The LifeLines study is approved by the medical ethical committee of the UMCG, the Netherlands. All participants signed an informed consent form before they received an invitation for the physical examination. For a comprehensive overview of the data collection, please visit the LifeLines catalog at . MGH CAMP: The Institutional Review Board at MGH reviews the study protocol annually. Each participant provided written, informed consent before enrolment. NEO: The Netherlands Epidemiology of obesity (NEO) study is supported by the participating Departments, the Division and the Board of Directors of the Leiden University Medical Center, and by the Leiden University, Research Profile Area Vascular and Regenerative Medicine. All participants gave written informed consent and the Medical Ethical Committee of the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) approved the study design. RS: The Rotterdam Study has been approved by the medical ethics committee according to the Population Study Act Rotterdam Study, executed by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports of the Netherlands. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants. SHIP: The SHIP study followed the recommendations of the Declaration of Helsinki. The study protocol of SHIP was approved by the medical ethics committee of the University of Greifswald. Written informed consent was obtained from each of the study participants. The SHIP study is described in PMID: 20167617. TwinsUK: The study has ethical approval from the NRES Committee London–Westminster, London, UK (EC04/015). Written consent was obtained from all participants. Research was carried out in accordance with the Helsinki declaration. UKBB: The UKB study has approval from the North West Multi-Centre Research Ethics Committee and all participants provided informed consent. UHP: The Utrecht Health Project has been approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the University Medical Centre Utrecht. All participants give written informed consent. The masking of all personal data for researchers and for other possible users of UHP has been regulated in a legal document. WHI: All WHI participants provided written and informed consent. All study sites received approval to conduct this research from local Institutional Review Boards at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer research Center. YFS: The Young Finns Study was approved by the local ethics committees (University Hospitals of Helsinki, Turku, Tampere, Kuopio, and Oulu) and was conducted following the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants gave their written informed consent. In vivo mouse work Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute : All mouse experiments were approved by the Cleveland Clinic Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (protocol no. 2015–1458, IACUC number: 18052990), and by the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

: MGH-CAMP: Dr. Ellinor is the PI on a grant from Bayer HealthCare to the Broad Institute focused on the genetics and therapeutics of atrial fibrillation.CHS: Dr. Bruce Psaty serves on the DSMB of a clinical trial funded by the manufacturer (Zoll LifeCor) and on the Steering Committee of the Yale Open Data Access Project funded by Johnson & Johnson.deCODE: G. Sveinbjornsson, D.O. Arnar, U. Thorsteinsdottir, D.F.Gudbjartsson, H. Holm, K. Stefansson are employed by deCODE genetics/Amgen, Inc.

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