title: The Muscatine Cholesterol Family Study: distribution of cholesterol levels within families of probands with high, low and middle cholesterol levels.
abstract: The Muscatine Cholesterol Family Study includes the relatives of three groups of schoolchildren: those with cholesterol levels above the 95th percentiles in two consecutive school screens, those with cholesterol levels below the 5th percentile twice, and random sample of those with cholesterol levels between the 5th and 95th percentiles twice. This paper examines the cholesterol distribution within and among these families for evidence of major gene effects. Three screening techniques are used: admixture analysis using maximum likelihood, comparison of within-sibship variances among groups, and regression of within-sibships variance on within-sibship mean. The results of the three techniques are consistent and indicate the existence of a major gene in a subset of the families with a proband above the the 95th percentile, but not in the other two groups of families. We estimate that 15% of schoolchildren with a cholesterol level above the 95th percentile twice, or 3 per thousand in the general population, have a dominant gene as a cause of the cholesterol elevation.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D005799:Genes, Dominant; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000235:genetics*; D006938:Hyperlipoproteinemia Type II / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010375:Pedigree; D012306:Risk
chemical_list: D002784:Cholesterol