Suggestive linkage of a putative genetic risk factor for cervical artery dissections to chromosome region 15q2

Background: Cervical artery dissections are associated with connective tissue aberrations that can be diagnosed by electron microscopic investigation of a skin biopsy. In a study of patients as well as their healthy relatives the connective tissue aberrations were shown to be familial with an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance. Methods: We studied here skin biopsies from two patients and from 13 relatives. In a subsequent genetic linkage analysis we searched for a candidate susceptibility locus for the connective tissue phenotype. DNA was isolated from venous blood samples and investigated with 470 autoso…