title: Identifiying inherited disease through the family history.
abstract: The family pedigree record must be carefully recorded and reviewed on an annual basis. Review allows a continuting opportunity to identify new genetic risk factors. Physicians should be familiar with the pedigree patterns of autosomal dominant inheritance, sex-linked dominant inheritance, autosomal recessive inheritance, sex-linked recessive inheritance and polygenic inheritance. This understanding provides the basis for genetic counseling, prenatal diagnosis and improved therapy.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003241:Consanguinity; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000235:genetics; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D005799:Genes, Dominant; D005808:Genes, Recessive; D005817:Genetic Counseling; D030342:Genetic Diseases, Inborn / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008423:Maternal Age; D010375:Pedigree; D012730:Sex Chromosomes