The Family Characteristics of Children with Clefts of Lip and Palate

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A group of infants with clefts of lip and palate was examined in respect of the structure and character of the in families and the following were found. The mean maternal age was higher than in the general population. Malformation rates among relatives were significantly higher than in the general population, although not so high as in some other studies; a simple genetic mechanism was not self evident. There was a significant degree of concordance within families for the type of malformation but not sufficient, as has previously been postulated, completely to separate cleft palate from cleft lip with or without cleft palate. There was a significant variation of family fertility between different types of malformation, families of children with combined clefts of lip and palate having higher fertilities than the other 2 types of malformation. Concordant variations were found both in the propositus'' sibships and among parents'' sibships. Aberrations of sex ratio were found among parents'' siblings and among cousins. These aberrations are considered to be important not only for understanding the aetiology of clefts of lip and palate but of other malformations too, and they probably contain clues to complex disturbances of genetic mechanisms the exact nature of which is not yet clear.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: