Risk for Relatives of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis in Central Sardinia, Italy

Abstract

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory, disabling disease of the central nervous system, known for its complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors. We used life table techniques to calculate age-adjusted recurrence risks for different categories of relatives of MS patients from Central Sardinia (Italy), a genetically homogeneous, stable population with a high degree of consanguinity. We included 313 probands and a total of 12,717 relatives in the analysis. The overall age-adjusted recurrence risk for relatives of MS probands is 1.90% [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.57–2.30]. The age-adjusted recurrence risk in parents was 1.26% (95% CI 0.60–2.63), in children 2.33% (95% CI 0.09–5.56), in sibs 4.76% (95% CI 3.57–6.32), in second-degree relatives 0.72% (95% CI 0.42–1.22), and in third-degree relatives 1.79% (95% CI 1.27–2.51). The sex of the probands (male) and of the relatives (female), and the number of affected relatives in the family significantly increase the risk of MS in relatives.

Modest familial risks for multiple sclerosis: a registry-based study of the population of Sweden

“…This paper presents strikingly lower risk ratios than most previous studies of familial recurrence in multiple sclerosis (Sadovnick and Baird, 1988; Ebers et al , 1995; Robertson et al , 1996; Sazdovitch et al , 2000; Marrosu et al , 2002; Prokopenko et al , 2003; O’Gorman et al , 2011, 2013). With 28 161 patients with multiple sclerosis and an estimated 96% coverage of the Swedish multiple sclerosis population, this is the most complete study of a single population to date.…”

“…Differences in data collection have questioned the validity of meta-analyses (Hawkes and Macgregor, 2009). A commonality for the previously published studies on familial risk and twins is that most contain patients that are recruited either in a clinical setting or from public appeals, with a few exceptions using national or regional case registries (Prokopenko et al , 2003; Nielsen et al , 2005). These methods increase the risk that the sample will be skewed with a higher concordance rate than the population (Hawkes, 1997).…”

Modelling Genetic Susceptibility to Multiple Sclerosis with Family Data

“…Application of exclusion criteria resulted in 18 eligible family and twin studies (online suppl. tables 1 and 2; for all online supplementary material, see www.karger.com?doi=10.1159/000341902) [39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57]. …”

Prevalence of Radiologically Isolated Syndrome and White Matter Signal Abnormalities in Healthy Relatives of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis

“…3 In a recent meta-analysis, the risk of development of MS was 18.2% for monozygotic twins of patients with MS, 4.6% for dizygotic twins, and 2.7% for siblings. 4 The risk of development of MS in a first-degree relative of the affected patient is 30-to 50-fold higher than in the general population, 5 whereas second-and third-degree relatives also showed an increased risk for development of MS. 6 Whether familial or non-familial MS are different forms of the disease is not fully elucidated yet. 7 Differences in disease progression in familial MS were observed in several studies demonstrating earlier age of onset and increased probability of a progressive clinical course.…”