The Patricia Lance Lecture 1997 – Heredity and Strabismus

Robin Wilkinson

Strabismus has long been thought to be hereditary. Studies of the increased prevalence of strabismus in the siblings of probands and studies of the higher concordance of strabismus in monozygotic as opposed to dizygotic twins support this observation. The genetic basis is not known. However, it does not appear to follow a simple Mendelian pattern of inheritance and is thought to be polygenic and multifactorial with environmental factors playing a part. The Strabismus Inheritance Study in Tasmania has been established to discover the gene(s) responsible for hereditary strabismus. The study will examine 300 affected sibling pairs and their nuclear families.