Familial distributions of organ specific antibodies in the blood of patients with Addison's disease and hypoparathyroidism and their relatives.

Tests for antibodies against thyroid, adrenal and gastric tissues have been carried out on the blood of patients with Addison's disease with and without hypoparathyroidism and with hypoparathyroidism alone, their unaffected sibs, their parents, and a number of persons serving as controls. A previous study of the genetic and clinical characteristics of these patients and their families suggested a classification of the syndromes, some of which appear to be relatively homogenous as to origin, others not. The results of the antibody tests have been analysed in the context of the classification with results which support it and which do not suggest further heterogeneity.