What Is Poland Syndrome?
8. Heritability
Poland syndrome is not associated with a particular gene so is not considered a genetic condition, and genetic testing is not used to diagnose or predict its occurrence. In the majority of cases it appears to be a sporadic condition, which means that it occurs for no apparent reason and is not passed down to subsequent generations.
In some cases, however, Poland syndrome does appear to be heritable, because there are known families with multiple cases of the condition across generations. When analyzing the pedigrees of these families, the pattern of inheritance resembles that of other disorders caused by dominant autosomal genes. Researchers so far do not understand this pattern, because they do not know which gene or genes might be responsible for the suite of symptoms.
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