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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Is Scoliosis Hereditary In Nature?

Hey. Myself and my children have thalassemia. One of my daughter s hemoglobin count remains around 93 this is normal for us. I had to have 10 units of blood during each of my pregnancies. This is something my daughter expects when she gets pregnant. This is were my questions comes. She is very serious about a man. This man s mother and sister has scoliosis. He seems fine BUT, can he be tested for this? If he doesn t have it can his child? And, are there addition dangers for them to have children together?
Wed, 26 Apr 2017
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Neurologist,  's  Response
Scoliosis is believed to be caused by a combination between GENETIC as well as ENVIRONMENTAL factors including medical conditions that may trigger or favor the development of the disease such as cerebral palsy, Marfan's Syndrome, chronic muscle spasms of a severe nature that do not respond to treatment, and certain tumors such as neurofibromatosis. There are no genetic biomarkers available yet or approved by the FDA for testing individuals with or without clinical evidence of scoliosis. There is a genetic test currently being looked at but not approved for adolescents diagnosed WITH scoliosis in order to predict future progression of curvature....but nothing for people who are not clinically diagnosed to predict the probability of offspring having the problem.

Since I stated above that scoliosis is believed to be a COMBINATION of genetic predispositions and environmental factors there is no verifiable or certain way to predict the outcome of having children even if families where scoliosis is known to exist since there are many examples of children born to parents (both of whom have scoliosis) and who never develop the disease.

My recommendation is if there are significant concerns of your daughter on this topic that she should seek out a genetics counselor or geneticist for more directed guidance.

Feel free to send more questions to: www.bit.ly/drdariushsaghafi and I would also appreciate your 5 STAR rating of our interaction.
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Is Scoliosis Hereditary In Nature?

Scoliosis is believed to be caused by a combination between GENETIC as well as ENVIRONMENTAL factors including medical conditions that may trigger or favor the development of the disease such as cerebral palsy, Marfan s Syndrome, chronic muscle spasms of a severe nature that do not respond to treatment, and certain tumors such as neurofibromatosis. There are no genetic biomarkers available yet or approved by the FDA for testing individuals with or without clinical evidence of scoliosis. There is a genetic test currently being looked at but not approved for adolescents diagnosed WITH scoliosis in order to predict future progression of curvature....but nothing for people who are not clinically diagnosed to predict the probability of offspring having the problem. Since I stated above that scoliosis is believed to be a COMBINATION of genetic predispositions and environmental factors there is no verifiable or certain way to predict the outcome of having children even if families where scoliosis is known to exist since there are many examples of children born to parents (both of whom have scoliosis) and who never develop the disease. My recommendation is if there are significant concerns of your daughter on this topic that she should seek out a genetics counselor or geneticist for more directed guidance. Feel free to send more questions to: www.bit.ly/drdariushsaghafi and I would also appreciate your 5 STAR rating of our interaction.