Carter effect

The Carter effect describes the increased recurrence of multifactorial inherited diseases when the sex less affected is affected.

This phenomenon was first described by Cedric Carter in 1961 . He observed that women who suffered from hypertrophic pyloric stenosis in childhood were more likely to have children who also developed the disease than was the case with children of sick men. In addition, the women affected were more likely to have other relatives who were ill. Hypertrophic pyloric stenosis is about 5 times less common in girls. The effect is also observed in multiple sclerosis , which is less common in men. The theory of the so-called "threshold value effect" can be used to explain this phenomenon: a characteristic is only manifested phenotypically when a certain number of genotypic changes are present, but then completely ( all-or-nothing principle ). This threshold appears to be gender-specific for some diseases.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Schaaf and Zschocke: 'Basic knowledge of human genetics.' Springer Medizin Verlag Heidelberg 2008, p. 109, p. 81
2. ↑ CO Carter: 'The Inheritance Of Congential Pyloric Stenosis.' Br Med Bull (1961) 17 (3): 251-253.
3. ↑ O. Kantarci et al .: Men transmit MS more often to their children vs women . In: Neurology . tape 67 , no. 2 , 2006, p. 305-310 ( [1] ).

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