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Are there true ABO and Rh segregation distortions?

Carlos Y. Valenzuela

Departamento de Biología Celular y Genética, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Independencia 1027, Casilla 70061, Santiago 7, Chile. Fax: (56-2) 7373158

ABSTRACT

Reports on ABO and Rh segregation distortions found in mother-child or sib-sib pair analyses have been contested (Fonseca and Krieger, Rev. Bras. Genet. 17: 109-112, 1994), because multiple observations from the same family could inflate type I statistical error. The present study has assumed this criticism as a hypothesis and reanalyzed the aforementioned data with a new biological design. The distortions remained significant even in groups with only one child. Also, significant distortions were found when samples were analyzed according to sex or birth order of newborns. Thus, the hypothesis of type I statistical error inflation was shown to be false. Also, the probability distribution determined in Fonseca and Krieger (1994) does not agree with the hypothesis of type I error inflation.

Keywords: true ABO; Rh segregation.

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