Accumulating evidence suggests that elevated cystatin-C levels are associated with several cardiovascular conditions, including coronary heart disease (Luc et al., 2006), stroke (Ni et al., 2007; Shlipak et al., 2005), myocardial infarction (Shlipak et al., 2005), heart failure (Sarnak et al., 2005), and hypertension (Kestenbaum et al., 2008). The gene discussed is CST3; the disease is heart failure.