Relative disease severity in siblings with myotonic dystrophy

Myotonic dystrophy is an autosomal dominant disorder in which an early-onset form is characteristically inherited from the mother. We studied 17 affected sibling pairs from 15 families in which two or more affected children were born to mothers with myotonic dystrophy. Later-born affected children suffered more severe disease than their first-born siblings in 13 of 17 sibling pairs. Later-born affected siblings displayed significantly more neonatal feeding difficulties, later age when first sitting alone, later age when first walking alone, and a higher incidence of scoliosis. The overall difference in disease severity between affected siblings increased as the age difference between them increased, suggesting that increasing maternal age is a factor in the relative disease severity of affected children. These findings may have relevance for genetic counseling.