Twin Studies in Congenital Heart Diseases

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Abstract
Uchida and Rowe (1957), Lamy et al (1957), as well as Campbell (1961), were of the opinion that genetic factors do not play an important role in the genesis of congenital heart deformities. These authors could not find any concordantly affected pair among a total of 32 MZ twin pairs. Impressive family case reports and systematic investigations (Fuhrmann, 1970; Jörgensen, 1970) do not support this assumption. The results of twin investigations by Nora et al (1967) also contradict previous results. Among a total of 37 twin pairs these authors found 6/13 MZ and 1/24 DZ concordantly affected pairs.Our own investigations began in autumn, 1966 and were recently completed. With the help of the registrar of birth offices and the cardiological team of the University of Göttingen (Prof. Dr. A. J. Beuren, Prof. Dr. H.-E. Hoffmeister, Prof. Dr. J. Koncz, Prof. Dr. J. Stoermer), we were able to find 50 index patients, each being a member of a twin pair, among 2427 propositi with different congenital heart defects.Our own results are shown in Tab. I: 4/21 MZ (19.0 ± 8.6%) and 1/24 DZ (4.2 ± 4.1%) are concordantly affected. In five cases, the zygosity of the twins, as well as the diagnosis of respective cotwins, (stillborn or perinatal-dead) is unknown.

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