4 June 1997

I've just seen two unrelated Latin American patients with isolated bilateral Microtia III (no spinal anomalies, no facial dysmorphism). The first, a little boy, has no family history, and the family was given a low recurrence risk. The second, a little girl has a distant family history (father's mother's sister and that person's child) of _unilateral_ microtia. I have examined the father and his ears are normal. He reports that his mother's ears also are normal. Literature is all over the board.
I would appreciate any advice regarding couseling this family on recurrence risk. Based upon what I have found, I am inclined towards telling them that their empiric risk is about 5%, but that it may be as high as 50%.

Angela E. Scheuerle, M.D. >Assistant Professor >Division of Medical Genetics >Department of Pediatrics >UT Health Science Center - Houston >6431 Fannin, MSB 3.144 >Houston TX 77030 >ascheuer@ped1.med.uth.tmc.edu