Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T16:59:14.008Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Twin Studies of Disease Heritability Based on Medical Records: Application to Acne Vulgaris

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Gary D. Friedman
Gary D. Friedman*
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Methods Research, Kaiser-Permanente Medical Care Program, Oakland, California
*
3451 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, CA 94611, USA

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Establishment of the Kaiser- Permanente Twin Registry permitted the study of disease heritability in twins based on review of the twins' medical records. The records of 930 pairs of twins were reviewed. Based on previous questionnaires, 342 pairs were MZ, 345 were DZ and 243 were of unknown zygosity. Because of the age distribution of these twins and the time period in which they received care, conditions of youth, such as acne vulgaris were most reliably studied Heritability of acne was assessed in three ways; all indicated a substantial genetic influence. Certain problems with twin studies using medical records became apparent: 1) Zygosity information is often lacking; 2) Differing times and durations of observation of the two twins in each pair must be accounted for; 3) Categorization by diagnosis is difficult and strict criteria for diagnosis may be impractical; 4) Patients' behavior that affects assessment of disease concordance must be considered; 5) The order in which records are reviewed may influence apparent concordance.

Keywords

Acne vulgarisHeritabilityTwinsMedical records
Type
Research Article
Information
Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae: twin research , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , July 1984 , pp. 487 - 495
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Twin Studies 1984

References

REFERENCES

1.Cavalli-SForza, LL, Bodmer, WF (1971): The Genetics of Human Populations. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Co., p 580.Google Scholar
2.Cederlōf, R, Friberg, LL, Lundman, T 1977: The interactions of smoking, environment and heredity and their implications for disease etiology; a report of epidemiological studies on the Swedish twin registries. Acta Med Scand Suppl 612:12–13.Google ScholarPubMed
3.Friedman, GD, Klatsky, AL, Siegelaub, AB, McCarthy, N (1974); Kaiser-Permanente Epidemiologic Study of Myocardial Infarction: Study design and rusu its for standard risk factors, Am J Epidemiol 99:101–116.Google Scholar
4.Friedman, GD, Lewis, AL (1978): The Kaiser-Permanente Twin Registry. In Nance, WE (ed): Twin Research: Part P, Biology and Epidemiology. New York: Alan R. Liss, p 173–177.Google Scholar
5.Friedman, GD, King, MC, Klatsky, AL, Hulley, SB (1981): Characteristics of smoking-discordant monozygotic twins. In Gedda, L, Parisi, P, Nance, WE (eds): Twin Research 3: Part C, Epidemiological and Clinical Studies. New York: Alan R. Liss p 17–22.Google Scholar
6.Gottesman, II, Carey, G 1983: Extracting meaning and direction from twin data. Psychiatric Developments 1:35–50.Google Scholar
7.Hecht, H (1960): Hereditary trends in acne vulgaris: prevention of acne. Dermatologia 121:297–307.Google Scholar
8.King, MC, Friedman, GD, Lattanzio, D, et al (1980): Diagnosis of twin zygosity by self-assessment and by genetic analysis. Acta Genet Med Gemellol 29:121–126.Google Scholar
9.Koran, LM (1975): The reliability of clinical methods, data and judgments. N Engl J Med 293: 642–646, 695–701.Google Scholar
10.Niermann, H (1958): Bericht über 230 Zwillinge mit Hantkrankheiten. Z Menschl Vereb Konstit 34:483–487.Google Scholar
11.Reich, T, James, JW, Morris, CA 1972: The use of multiple thresholds in determining the mode of transmission of semi-continuous traits. Ann Hum Genet 36:163–184.Google Scholar
12.Rook, A (1960): Aspects of cutaneous androgen-dependent syndrome. Int J Dermatol 19:357–361.Google Scholar