Study of the clinical and hereditary aspects of the familial heart disease.

Abstract

129 cases with familial heart disease of 392 members investigated from 33 families in Japanese were analyzed from the view of points of clinical and hereditary feature and results were compared with that in the caucasian seen in literatures. Subjects in this study were classified in 3 types, namely, with cardiomegaly (type Ia), without cardiomegaly (type Ib), hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (type II) and rare type (type III) including familial heart block, with QT prolongation in ECG and familial WPW syndrome . The morbidity in both sexes was similar. The aggravation of clinical feature by aging was observed and high incidence of sudden death was postulated. Age at beginning of the disease and death became earlier in the descendants in the direct line generation after generation. Analysis on the hereditary process disclosed the autosomal dominat and not sex-linked heredity in each type. Rusults obtained from Japanese were almost similar to that of caucasian in literatures.