BACKGROUND Genetic susceptibility to multiple sclerosis (MS) has been recognised for many years. Considerable data exist from the northern hemisphere regarding the familial recurrence risks for MS, but there are few data for the southern hemisphere and regions at lower latitude such as Australia. To investigate the interaction between environmental and genetic causative factors in MS, the autho...

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease whose prevalence has reached global epidemic proportions. Although the disease is relatively benign in the early stages, when severe clinical forms, including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), cirrhosis and even hepatocellular carcinoma, occur, they result in worsening the long-term prognosis. A growing body of...

Phenotype and genotype markers of genetic susceptibility are of increasing interest in case-control studies of cancer. It is well established that bias to the odds ratio is caused by less-than-perfect assay sensitivity and specificity and varies with risk factor prevalence. As such, the observed variation in odds ratio between studies of genetic markers and cancer risk may be real, or may be at...

Susceptibility to most human diseases is polygenic, with complex interactions between functional polymorphisms of single genes governing disease incidence, phenotype, or both. In this context, the contribution of any discrete gene is generally modest for a single individual, but may confer substantial attributable risk on a population level. Environmental exposure can modify the effects of a po...

Gallstone disease (GSD) is the result of the interaction between genetic and environmental factors and it is a major disease cause of surgery with high costs to health systems. Worldwide prevalence varies according to the ethnic population suggesting that high prevalence of GSD in certain ethnic groups is due to the presence of genetic factors implicated in different metabolic pathways. However...

There is strong evidence that genetic as well as environmental factors affect the development of periodontitis, and some suggestion that aggressive and chronic forms of the disease share the same genetic predisposition. This study addresses the hypothesis that there are both shared and unique genetic associations in these forms of periodontitis. A sample of 51 patients with aggressive disease, ...