Familial association of epilepsy and cleft palate: an expression of predisposed common genetic factors or a teratogenic effect of the epilepsy genotype? Asociacion familiar de epilepsia y de fisura labiopalatina: expresion de factores geneticos predispone

Abstract

The familial association of epilepsy and cleft lip with or without cleft palate (CL (P)) is analyzed assuming both entities share common genetic predisposing factors. The genealogical data stemming from 169 CL (P) probands and 168 epileptic probands yielded information on the prevalence rates of cleft and epileptic relatives. The working hypothesis assumes that the relatives of epileptic and cleft probands should have a greater liability to CL (P) and epilepsy, respectively. The results obtained do not support the hypothesis of an etiologic association given that a greater joint prevalence of epileptic and cleft relatives is only observed when the proband is epileptic and not with a cleft proband. This situation seems to reflect a teratogenic effect of the epileptic genotype which expresses itself in those individuals which simultaneously present a greater liability to cleft.