Autosomal recessive inheritance of juvenile periodontitis: test of a hypothesis

The heredity of juvenile periodontitis was studied in a series of 30 families. None of the 60 parents showed any sign of this disease. Of the 52 siblings, nine in seven families were affected. The calculated genetic ratio concurred with the hypothesis of autosomal recessive inheritance based on the results of an earlier study of 31 families (Saxén 1980).