title: Apparently changing patterns of inheritance in Alport's hereditary nephritis: genetic heterogeneity versus altered diagnostic criteria.
abstract: With the use of more stringent diagnostic criteria, it has recently been shown that some large pedigrees of Alport's and non-Alport's hereditary nephritis fit sex-linked dominant inheritance (O'Neill et al. 1978). We have used similar diagnostic criteria and have studied a number of Michigan pedigrees in order to see if this hypothesis would be confirmed. We found one small pedigree which definitely shows male-to-male transmission, while one large pedigree is tentatively compatible with sex-linked dominant inheritance. Many of the other pedigrees suggested male-to-male transmission. This Michigan experience is compared to other published reports and found to be consistent, although a trend of fewer reports of male-to-male transmission is seen. We conclude that genetic heterogeneity of Alport's hereditary nephritis is likely.
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009394:Nephritis, Hereditary / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D010375:Pedigree; D014960:X Chromosome