A genealogical assessment of heritable predisposition to aneurysms.
OBJECTIVE
This study was conducted to investigate the familial and genetic contribution to intracranial, abdominal aortic, and all other types of aneurysms, and to define familial relationships among patients who present with the different aneurysm types.


METHODS
The authors used a unique Utah resource to perform population-based analysis of the familial nature of aneurysms. The Utah Population Data Base is a genealogy of the Utah population dating back eight generations, which is combined with death certificate data for the state of Utah dating back to 1904. Taking into account the genetic relationships among all aneurysm cases derived from this resource, the authors used a previously published method to estimate the familiality of different aneurysm types. Using internal, birth-cohort-specific rates of disease calculated from the database, they estimated relative risks by comparing observed to expected rates of aneurysm incidence in defined sets of relatives of probands.


CONCLUSIONS
Each of the three aneurysm types investigated showed significant evidence for a genetic component. Relatives of patients with intracranial aneurysms do not appear to be at increased risk for abdominal or other lesions, but relatives of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms appear to be at increased risk for other types of these lesions.
Cannon Albright
Lisa A
LA
Department of Medical Informatics, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. lisa@genepi.med.utah.edu
Camp
Nicola J
NJ
Farnham
James M
JM
MacDonald
Joel
J
Abtin
Keyvan
K
Rowe
Kerry G
KG
D000368:Aged; D001014:Aortic Aneurysm / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D002532:Intracranial Aneurysm / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010375:Pedigree; D012307:Risk Factors