THURSDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- A case-control study of Icelanders has offered "the first direct evidence to support a common genetic component for inflammatory bowel disease and ankylosing spondylitis," say researchers in the August issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.
Bjarni Thjodleifsson, M.D., Ph.D., of the Landspitali University Hospital in Reykjavik, Iceland, and colleagues used data from an extensive genealogical database and registries of all living Icelanders with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) to assess the existence of a shared genetic risk factor for these diseases in families.
The cross-risk ratio for IBD in the first- and second-degree relatives of patients with AS was 3.0 and 2.1, respectively. The cross-risk ratio of AS in first- and second-degree relatives of patients with IBD was 2.1, the researchers reported.
"When taken together, the results of the present study and those from previous studies suggest that there is a strong and common genetic component to the risk of AS and IBD," the authors wrote. "Our results provide strong evidence that a molecular-genetic approach should be utilized in patients with these diseases, in order to identify the putative common genetic abnormality in AS and IBD. If the approach proves successful, this will open the possibility of identifying a common early pathophysiologic event in both AS and IBD that may be amenable to new and selective treatments."
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