1. population in the industrialised communities of the study. Likewise, though not selected from the population at large, the reference probands were fairly representative of men of their age in the study communities. Even if somewhat better health than that found in the general population could be expected in this group of mostly employed men, free of any symptoms of coronary heart disease (McMichael;et al; morbidity and mortality of the relatives of these probands appeared to be very similar to that of the general population in Finland, if judged from the preliminary data available from a population study of 50 000 Finns (A. Aromaa, unpublished results
2. From the above it appears that the excess rate of coronary heart disease in case relatives over that of reference relatives shown here is no greater t'han in studies from other countries. It should be remembered, however, that the frequencies of coronary heart disease in both case and reference relatives in the present study are remarkably higher than those reported elsewhere. For instance, the risk of coronary heart disease for case brothers in the present study was greater than that for the affected brothers in families with type II familial hypercholesterolaemia in a report from the United States;(Phillips et al.,,1974
3. They suggested also that the genetic component may be more prominent in coronary heart disease in women than in men. This is supported by the present findings
4. In some families, especially in a majority of those with a maternal history of coronary heart disease, the number affected by coronary heart disease was high enough to suggest the effect of dominant gene(s), directly causing coronary heart disease. In most families, however, the genetic factors involved are likely to be polygenic. The relatively modest overall aggregation of coronary heart disease among case relatives if compared with reference relatives, as well as the decline in risk of coronary heart disease between ca3e and reference relatives with advancing age, suggest an interplay of multiple factors in the development of this complex disease,1969
5. Genetics of common disorders;Carter, C. 0;British Medical Bulletin,1969