Al-Chalabi, A, Fang, F, Hanby, M F, Leigh, P N, Shaw, C E, Ye, W and Rijsdijk, F (2010) An estimate of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis heritability using twin data. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 81 (12). pp. 1324-6. ISSN 1468-330X
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
BACKGROUND
Causative gene mutations have been identified in about 2% of those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often, but not always, when there is a strong family history. There is an assumption that there is a genetic component to all ALS, but genome-wide association studies have yet to produce a robustly replicated result. A definitive estimate of ALS heritability is therefore required to determine whether ongoing efforts to find susceptibility genes are worth while.
METHODS
The authors performed two twin studies, one population- and one clinic-based. The authors used structural equation modelling to perform a meta-analysis of data from these studies and an existing twin study to estimate ALS heritability, and identified 171 twin pairs in which at least one twin had ALS.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Five monozygotic twin pairs were concordant-affected, and 44 discordant-affected. No dizygotic twin pairs were concordant-affected, and 122 discordant-affected. The heritability of sporadic ALS was estimated as 0.61 (0.38 to 0.78) with the unshared environmental component 0.39 (0.22 to 0.62). ALS has a high heritability, and efforts to find causative genes should continue
Item Type: | Article |
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Schools and Departments: | Brighton and Sussex Medical School > Clinical and Experimental Medicine Brighton and Sussex Medical School > Neuroscience |
Subjects: | R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry > RC0346 Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system Including speech disorders |
Related URLs: | |
Depositing User: | Patricia Butler |
Date Deposited: | 14 Nov 2012 18:12 |
Last Modified: | 25 Sep 2017 13:44 |
URI: | http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/42173 |