Pelvic floor disorders (PFDs) affect one third of adult women and result in surgery for one in nine women, still liffle is known about the etiology or prevention of these conditions. This proposal is unique in proposing to study of the heritability of pelvic floor disorders in an effort to shed new light on their causes. Of the known risk factors for PFDs, only family history identifies women at risk before the major inciting and promoting factors transpire. The broad, long-term objectives of this proposal are to establish the genetic determinants of PFDs and to identify genes that may contribute to the development of these conditions.
The specific aims of this proposal are 1) to identif~r PFD phenotypes that are most likely to have a genetic component through detailed clinical information collected from affected sister pairs identified through the Utah Continence Center patient database and 2) to test likely candidate genes using genetic linkage analysis of affected sister pairs. These sibling pairs will be prioritized based on phenotype concordance, controlling for the effect of known risk factors on each affected sister pair. Successful completion of our genetic analysis should lead to characterization of the genetic contribution to these disorders, allow pre-symptomatic identification of patients at risk, and substantially advance our understanding of the disease processes in PFDs. Our application shows that the University of Utah Health Sciences Center combines a unique patient population with experienced clinicians, geneticists, and genetic epidemiologists necessary to this project.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD041163-03
Application #
6656322
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZHD1-DRG-D (12))
Program Officer
Weber, Anne M
Project Start
2001-09-27
Project End
2006-08-31
Budget Start
2003-09-01
Budget End
2004-08-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$348,750
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Utah
Department
Obstetrics & Gynecology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
009095365
City
Salt Lake City
State
UT
Country
United States
Zip Code
84112
Norton, Peggy A; Allen-Brady, Kristina; Cannon-Albright, Lisa A (2013) The familiality of pelvic organ prolapse in the Utah Population Database. Int Urogynecol J 24:413-8