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vietnam era twin registry
Overview of VETR
Twins are a unique resource for research in helping to understand the genetic
and non-genetic contribution to health and disease. In the Nordic countries,
such as Sweden (Cederlof et al., 1970), Finland (Kaprio et al., 1987),
Norway (Kringlen, 1978), and Denmark (Kyvik et al., 1996), registries of
twins have existed for many generations. These registries have proven invaluable
in teasing apart questions about the interplay of genes and environment
in understanding complex diseases. In the United States there is a paucity
of twin registries and this has been a serious impediment to research.
Currently no formal national twin registry exists, though several states
possess registries, such as Minnesota (Lykken et al., 1990), Missouri (Todd
et al., 2001) and Virginia (Corey et al., 1991). The largest national twin
registry in the US is the National Academy of Sciences Medical Follow-up
Agency (MFUA) WW-II Twin Registry (Jablon et al., 1967). The MFUA Twin
Registry was complied in the 1960's and consists of ~16,000 white male-male
twin pairs who both served in the military during the Second World War.
This Registry of elderly veterans has been used to study numerous diseases
and conditions, including cardiovascular disorders (Feinleib et al., 1977)
and more recently Parkinson's Disease (Tanner et al., 1999) and Alzheimer's
Disease (Gallo & Breitner, 1995). The Vietnam Era Twin (VET) Registry
is the only other national Registry of twins in the US (Eisen et al., 1987;
Henderson
et al., 1990). Below we provide a brief history of the VET Registry.
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| Reviewed/Updated Date: May
1, 2008 |
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