Assessment of a genetic contribution to osteoarthritis of the hip: sibling study
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Siblings have a five fold increased risk of developing osteoarthritis of the hip compared with unrelated individuals, which suggests a strong genetic influence on susceptibility to the disease, according to research from Nottingham in this week's BMJ.
Peter Lanyon and colleagues from Nottingham University contrasted 392 patients with osteoarthritis and 604 of their siblings against a control group of 1,718 other patients.
Other research has already demonstrated a family link for osteoarthritis of the hand and knee but this large-scale study now confirms earlier research suggesting a link in osteoarthritis of the hip. The Nottingham research shows that the risk to siblings is even greater than previously thought, at around three to eightfold the rate of prevalence in unrelated people.
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Professor Michael Doherty, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK
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