Refinement of the chromosome 5p locus for familial calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate deposition disease.

Familial calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate deposition disease (CPPDD) is a disease of articular cartilage that is radiographically characterized by chondrocalcinosis due to the deposition of calcium-containing crystals in affected joints. We have documented the disease in an Argentinean kindred of northern Italian ancestry and in a French kindred from the Alsace region. Both families presented with a common phenotype including early age at onset and deposition of crystals of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate in a similar pattern of affected joints.

Five families with arginine 519-cysteine mutation in COL2A1: evidence for three distinct founders.

Arginine519-cysteine mutation in the type II procollagen gene (COL2A1) is known to be associated with mild spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia (SED) and precocious generalized osteoarthritis (OA). Five families have now been identified with this mutation. To determine whether a common founder was responsible for the mutation in these five families, we defined the haplotype of the mutation-bearing chromosome using four restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) and the 3'-untranslated region VNTR.

[Antiochian genealogies in which idiopathic epilepsy presents familial conglomeration. Simulations of power for the detection of genetic linkage].

Objective And Methods: We have analyzed a set of multigenerational extended pedigrees ascertained from affected cases of idiopathic epilepsy in the Antioquian Neurologic Institute. All pedigrees show familial aggregation of several forms of non myoclonic idiopathic epilepsy. In a recent paper, we have demonstrated that generalized idiopathic epilepsy of the awakening type is better explained by the existence of a major gene.