Aung N, Vargas JD, Yang C, et al. - In order to gain clarity regarding the genetic basis of left ventricular (LV) image-derived phenotypes, which have an important role in the diagnosis, management and risk stratification of cardiovascular diseases, researchers undertook this study involving 16,923 European UK Biobank participants, with mean age 62.5 years and 45.8% were men. These people did not have prevalent myocardial infarction or heart failure. At a stringent p < 1 x 10^-8, 14 genome-wide significant loci were identified. In the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis study (N = 4,383), replication of 3 loci at Bonferroni significance and 7 loci at nominal significance was reported. Backed by at least two independent lines of in-silico proof, 8 genes (TTN, BAG3, GRK5, HSPB7, MTSS1, ALPK3, NMB and MMP11) displayed involvement in the cardiac morphogenesis and heart failure development. In a hold-out UK Biobank sample including 3,106 cases and 224,134 controls, heart failure was predicted by polygenic risk scores of LV phenotypes.