Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology
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Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol · May 2007
Multicenter StudyHigh familial risks for cerebral palsy implicate partial heritable aetiology.
Cerebral palsy is the commonest cause of severe childhood disability, the aetiology of which is largely unknown. Data on familial aggregation of cerebral palsy are very limited. We defined familial risks for siblings who were hospitalised because of cerebral palsy in Sweden. ⋯ The remarkably high familial risks are difficult to explain without some contribution of heritable factors. The lack of discordant pairs may suggest that heritable factors are disorder type-specific. Affected concordant sibling pairs should be subjected to molecular studies aiming at identifying the susceptibility gene.