The Diagonal Ear-Lobe Crease, Heredity and Coronary Heart Disease

. A total of 41 male patients (age range 29–50 years; mean 44) with previous myocardial infarction (MI) and their 134 first-degree relatives including 5 fathers, 11 mothers, 45 brothers, 26 sisters, 22 sons and 25 daughters, (age range 9–72 years), were examined for the presence or absence of the ear-lobe crease (ELC) in an attempt to study the heritability of this sign which has been reported to be associated with coronary heart disease (CHD). ELC was present in 24 MI patients (59%) and absent in 17 (41%). They had 74 and 61 relatives, respectively. All relatives with CHD in each group also had ELC, which was also found in approximately half of the parents without clinical CHD and about one quarter of the healthy brothers of both patient groups. The healthy sisters of MI patients with ELC showed the ear sign remarkably often (31%), but it was found in only 1 sister of the MI patient without ELC. None of the children had ELC. The present findings support an association between ELC and CHD and may reflect, in addition, a connection between ELC and clinically silent coronary atherosclerosis in these selected families. The results do not indicate that ELC is an inheritable sign as such. Rather, it develops together with CHD as has been supposed previously.