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. 2011 Oct;32(10):1923.e1-8.
doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2011.02.017. Epub 2011 Apr 11.

Heritability of Parkinson disease in Swedish twins: a longitudinal study

Karin Wirdefeldt  1 , Margaret Gatz, Chandra A Reynolds, Carol A Prescott, Nancy L Pedersen
Affiliations

Heritability of Parkinson disease in Swedish twins: a longitudinal study

Karin Wirdefeldt et al. Neurobiol Aging. 2011 Oct.

Abstract

Previous twin studies report no heritability of Parkinson's disease (PD) based on cross sectional information. Here, we apply a longitudinal design and re-evaluate cross sectional data in the population-based Swedish Twin Registry (STR) using clinical as well as hospital discharge and cause of death diagnoses. In the longitudinal analyses (based on 46,436 individuals), we identified 542 twins with PD and 65 twins with Parkinsonism. Concordance rates for PD were 11% for monozygotic and 4% for same-sexed dizygotic twin pairs, with a heritability estimate of 34%. Concordance rates for PD or parkinsonism were 13% for monozygotic and 5% for same-sexed dizygotic twin pairs, with a heritability estimate of 40%. In the cross sectional analyses (based on 49,814 individuals), we identified 287 twins with PD and 79 twins with parkinsonism. Concordance rates for PD were 4% for monozygotic and same-sexed dizygotic twin pairs and 0 for opposite-sexed twin pairs. Concordance rates for PD or parkinsonism were somewhat higher but the heritability estimate was nonsignificant. Our longitudinal analyses demonstrate that PD and parkinsonism are modestly heritable.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure statement. None of the authors has an actual or potential conflict of interest. All procedures were performed according to the Declaration of Helsinki and the project was approved by the Regional Ethical Review Board in Stockholm.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic description of study design. MZ = monozygotic, DZ = same-sexed dizygotic, OS = opposite-sexed, UK = unknown zygosity twin pairs. SALT (Screening Across the Lifespan Twin study) refers to the telephone screening for PD, Clin refers to the clinical workups for PD.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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