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Maglaras

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Lost a loved one
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Arrowtown
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My husbands father died of MND years ago & since losing a family friend recently to MND & also since the addition of a baby to our own family I thought it best that I research the level of hereditary risk of MND. I am however faced with such contradicting information about whether either my husband or my daughter are at risk. Some websites say that sporadic MND is 90 - 95% of cases yet another website said that a child of someone affected (ie my husband) has a 50% chance of contracting MND. Is there anyone who can please help me accurate information & is there a test that can be carried out to check for the MND carrier?
Thanks
 
Both statements are accurate and not contradictory. Most MND is sporadic BUT, for those who carry the familial gene, the likelihood of developing the illness is high.

Do you have reason to believe that yours husband's father had familial MND? From what I understand, there would be little doubt since his family history would show many other casualties. If he didn't have the familial form, then the chances of your husband or baby (or you for that matter) developing MND are the same as for the rest of the population, about 1 in 500.
 
Maglaras,

You left off a couple critical words which make the second part of your statement too general:

"...a child of someone affected (ie my husband) has a 50% chance of contracting MND"
should read:
"...a child of someone affected by Familial MND has a 50% chance of contracting MND"

So the trick is to find out if your husband has the Familial type or the Sporadic type. You have to look at his family history. Did either of his parents have it? If you can say with 100% confidence that the answer to that question is NO, then he doesn't have the Familial type. You may have to look farther up the family tree than his parents. Perhaps his father for example, died young and we never knew if he would have contracted MND if he had lived longer. So we don't know, and we would have to look at his father's parents, etc. Or he may have siblings, etc. than can give us a clue.

Another statement that I'm pretty sure is correct is:
"...a child of someone affected by Sporadic MND has a the same very rare chance of contracting MND as the general population"

-Tom
 
Tom, it was her father-in-law who died of MND several years ago, not her husband. She is wondering if her husband (and baby) are at risk. The key question she needs to answer is whether the FIL had the sporadic or familial form. Since she offers no evidence that other family members were affected, the chances are very good that the FIL had sporadic MND.
 
Thanks, John, yes it was her FIL I didn't read that very closely. Still, the same procedures would apply, this time to the FIL instead of the husband, to determine Sporadic vs. Familial.

And I agree, small chance of Familial, which covers only 5% - 10% of all ALS anyway.

Thanks,
Tom
 
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