The occurrence of hypertension in only one of identical twins suggests that environmental factors may play a significant role in its pathogenesis, challenging purely hereditary assumptions.
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Supports environmental contributions to hypertension; leaves open heritability estimates and should not yet change clinical risk assessment.
Because it has been assumed rather generally that the heredity patterns of identical twins are essentially similar, a study of any disease process affecting identical twins is of importance in that it may suggest the presence or absence of heredity factors in the pathogenesis of this particular disease. A study of cardiovascular disease occurring in identical twins may have such pertinence. Electrocardiographic studies1of identical twins have shown that, although the electrocardiograms of identical twins are similar in many instances, they are not always so and may be considerably different. Rheumatic fever with carditis in each of a pair of identical twins has been reported by Morgan and Webster2and by Perry.3However, the latter author also reported the occurrence of rheumatic fever in but one of another pair of identical twins and concluded that, while heredity may be of considerable importance in the pathogenesis of rheumatic
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Meyer Friedman (1943) studied this question.
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