Genetic Factors Affecting Risks for Rotator Cuff Disease

Aim 1. We will recruit and study all patients of the PI who undergo MRI for shoulder complaints. The PI is a shoulder and elbow surgeon and treats a variety of shoulder and non-shoulder pathology. All patients agreeing to participate will undergo a history, physical examination of the shoulder, recording of demographics, family history, genealogy, and risk factors. All participants will provide a blood or saliva sample. Serum and DNA will be stored at the University of Utah for future analysis. Based upon the results of MRI, patients will be categorized based on the presence or absence or rotator cuff tearing. We hope to extend to hospital-wide ascertainment eventually. All patients will be asked if they have known cases of shoulder disorders in their family members. Patients will have the option of sharing their living family members name and contact information with the research team, so we can contact them and invite them to the study.

Aim 2. From this DNA bio-repository, we will begin to describe the familial nature of rotator cuff disease and the characteristics related to increased risk. We will also begin ascertainment and sampling of high-risk individuals and pedigrees, perform association studies to identify risk-associated variants, and screen candidate genes as funding is available.

Aim 3: Utilizing the Utah Population Database (UPDB), we will also define high risk pedigrees within the cohort of individuals with rotator cuff tears. We will also use the database to identify high risk pedigrees by examining the information on family members of patients of with tears to identify high risk pedigrees as well. The RGE has already approved the use of the UPDB for these purposes.

Aim 4: Use UUHSC medical records linked to the UPDB to define the heritable nature of rotator cuff injury and other tendonopathies.

Aim 5: Determine ABO frequencies for patients with rotator cuff tears and compare to population normals utilizing the UPDB.