Cardiovascular disease (CVD), especially coronary heart disease, heart failure and cerebrovascular disease remain the leading causes of death in men and women across all race groups in the United States. Substantial evidence exists for genetic factors underlying CVD risk, and their discovery offers an opportunity to enhance understanding of disease mechanisms, to provide specific diagnostic and prognostic indicators, and to identify novel therapeutic targets. The Centers for Common Disease Genomics (CCDG) are a large-scale genome sequencing effort undertaken as a collaboration to identify rare risk and protective alleles for common chronic diseases, with a current focus on early onset heart disease, hemorrhagic stroke, and autism. In this study, whole genome sequencing (WGS) was... (for more see dbGaP study page.)