Recurrence risk for offspring of twins discordant for oral cleft: a population-based cohort study of the Danish 1936-2004 cleft twin cohort

Abstract

Our objective in this Danish population-based cohort study was to estimate the recurrence risk of isolated oral cleft (OC) for offspring of the unaffected co-twins of OC discordant twin pairs and to compare this risk to the recurrence risk in the offspring of the affected co-twin as well as to the risk in the background population. During 1936-2004, 207 twin pairs were ascertained, among whom at least one twin had an OC. The index persons were twins discordant for OC who had children (N=117), and their offspring (N=239). The participants were ascertained by linkage between The Danish Facial Cleft Database, The Danish Twin Registry and The Danish Civil Registration System. In the study OC recurrence risk for offspring of the affected and unaffected twin and relative risk were compared to the background prevalence. We found that among 110 children of the 54 OC affected twins, two (1.8%) children had OC corresponding to a significantly increased relative risk (RR=10; 95% CI 1.2-35) when compared to the frequency in the background population. Among the 129 children of the 63 unaffected twins, three (2.3%) children were affected, corresponding to a significantly increased relative risk (RR=13; 95% CI 2.6-36) when compared the background prevalence. We concluded that in OC discordant twin pairs similar increased recurrence risks were found among offspring of both OC affected and OC unaffected twins. This provides further evidence for a genetic component in cleft etiology and is useful information for genetic counseling of twin pairs discordant for clefting.

Fig 1

Pedigree of a family with monozygotic/dizygotic twin girls discordant for oral clefting.

Fig 2

Twin recurrence of isolated oral cleft, twins born from 1936 to 2004. MZ=monozygotic, DZ=dizygotic, UZ=unknown zygosity, CL=Cleft Lip, CLP=Cleft Lip and Palate, CP=Cleft Palate.

Fig. 3

Pedigree with recurrence risk and 95% confidence intervals. A: Family with twin girls discordant for oral cleft, B: affected parents (twins and singletons), C: background population.