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Correspondence
No male predominance in α-synuclein Parkinson's disease but the affected female fetus might be less viable
  1. M W I M Horstink1,
  2. B R Bloem1
  1. 1Department of Neurology, University Medical Centre Nijmegen, The Netherlands
  1. Correspondence to:
    Dr M W I M Horstink;
    m.horstink{at}czzoneu.azn.nl

https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.72.2.276

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    In their recent article on the clinical phenotype in Greek patients with α-synuclein Parkinson's disease (α-sPD) Papapetropoulos et al1 reported male predominance (60%) in their patients. The authors concluded that the sex ratio in their families does not differ significantly from patients with sporadic idiopathic Parkinson's disease (3:2) or with autosomal dominant α-sPD in the Contursi kindred (3.7: 2) and in the Greek-American family H (2.7: 2). The sex ratio as computed by Papapetropoulos et al1 is somewhat misleading. These results suggest that men are more susceptible to PD, or women less. It would be better to compute the segregation ratio for men and women. The segregation ratio is the percentage of persons at risk who are affected. At risk is defined as having an affected parent or sibling. We computed the segregation ratios for the combined numbers of persons at risk in the Contursi kindred (data from Golbe et al),2 the updated pedigree of the Greek-American family H,3 and two Greek families.4 The families of Papapetropoulos et al1 are not included because the total number of persons at risk is not mentioned.

    In these kindreds with α-sPD we counted 228 persons at risk: 132 men and 96 women. The …

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