Consistency of linkage results across exams and methods in the Framingham Heart Study

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Abstract
Background: The repeated measures in the Framingham Heart Study in the Genetic Analysis Workshop 13 data set allow us to test for consistency of linkage results within a study across time. We compared regression-based linkage to variance components linkage across time for six quantitative traits in the real data. Results: The variance components approach found 11 significant linkages, the regression-based approach found 4. There was only one region that overlapped. Consistency between exams generally decreased as the time interval between exams increased. The regression-based approach showed higher consistency in linkage results across exams. Conclusion: The low consistency between exams and between methods may help explain the lack of replication between studies in this field.