Is the Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome hereditary, should my children be tested?
APS is not hereditary in the sense in which we usually use that word–that is, the sense that we learned about in biology classes, where the precise “odds” of a trait being passed along to children can be calculated. Diseases or conditions with that sort of direct heredity are typically tied to one or more identified genes. No cause for APS has yet been singled out. We do know that it belongs to the “family” of autoimmune diseases, in which antibodies to tissues of the patient’s own body can be found–although how much mischief such antibodies may cause can vary considerably from one person to another. We also know that a tendency to some sort of autoimmune pattern (but not necessarily illness) tends to be familial; that is, when someone has one of these conditions, and their relatives are studied, a higher-than-usual presence of autoantibodies (not necessarily the same ones) is often found. So the short answer to your first question is no. As to your second question: It may well be a
APS is not hereditary in the sense in which we usually use that word–that is, the sense that we learned about in biology classes, where the precise “odds” of a trait being passed along to children can be calculated. Diseases or conditions with that sort of direct heredity are typically tied to one or more identified genes. No cause for APS has yet been singled out. We do know that it belongs to the “family” of autoimmune diseases, in which antibodies to tissues of the patient’s own body can be found–although how much mischief such antibodies may cause can vary considerably from one person to another. We also know that a tendency to some sort of autoimmune pattern (but not necessarily illness) tends to be familial; that is, when someone has one of these conditions, and their relatives are studied, a higher-than-usual presence of autoantibodies (not necessarily the same ones) is often found. So the short answer to your first question is no. As to your second question: It may well be a
