Abstract: The invention provides a method of identifying subject's susceptibility or predisposition to or risk of developing cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction (MI) or coronary heart disease (CHD) by detecting gene polymorphisms and other gene mutations in a defensin gene from a biological sample of the subject and obtaining information concerning the family and medical history, blood, serum, plasma and urinary analytes of the subject. The invention also provides a multivariate model, a combination or algorithm of variables which best describes the probability of CHD, especially MI. The invention also relates to a test kit and software for accomplishing the method. The present invention also relates to a variant defensin gene.