SIBLING CORRELATIONS AND SEGREGATION ANALYSIS OF AGE-RELATED MACULOPATHY - THE BEAVER DAM EYE STUDY

Sibling correlations were evaluated and segregation analysis was perfo rmed on age-dependent maculopathy scores of the right and left eyes of individuals from 564 families in the Beaver Dam Eye study. There is e vidence of significant sibling correlations. The data fit a mixture of two normal distributions, especially after undergoing the Box and Cox power transformation. In each eye, the hypothesis of mendelian transm ission of a major effect cannot be rejected under the tau(AB) free mod el, but is rejected under the tau's free model. The hypothesis of a ra ndom environmental major effect is rejected. Similar major gene parame ter estimates are found for both eyes. The results are consistent with a major effect accounting for 62% and 59%, in the right and left eyes , respectively, of the determination of age-related maculepathy scores . A single major gene can account for about 89% and 97% of this variab ility due to a major effect, or for about 55% and 57% of the total var iability, in the right and left eyes, respectively. (C) 1994 Wiley-Lis s, Inc.