[An extensive pedigree of autosomal dominant inheritance of bronchial asthma]

This paper reports a particularly extensive pedigree in which 33 (13 men and 20 women) of its 118 members (60 men and 58 women) through four generations had bronchial asthma. There were 22 cases of extrinsic asthma (accounting for 66.7%) which occurred chiefly in the juveniles and 11 cases of mixed asthma (accounting for 33.3%) which occurred mainly in the middle-aged and old people. Pedigree chart suggested the pattern of autosomal dominant inheritance. It was also found that when either husband or wife had the disease, 37.3% (19/51) of the offsprings would have it; and when both husband and wife had it, 83.3% (10/12) of their children would have it. Nevertheless, the patient II9 had two sons (III37, III39) free from asthma; and yet, their two children (IV53, IV54) had the disease. This is an exception. It is thus thought that in addition to hereditary factors, environmental factors and individual differences must also play a certain role.