Two-stage study designs for analyzing disease-associated covariates: linkage thresholds and case-selection strategies

Table 1 Definition of study designs^a

Design	Linkage software	Case selection strategy	Notes
A	MERLIN	All
B	MERLIN	"LINKED BEST" [5]
C	MERLIN plus OSA	OSA subset if ≥50 families	OSA for localization
D	MERLIN-REGRESS	All
E	MERLIN-REGRESS (M-R) plus OSA	OSA subset if ≥50 families and difference in OSA and M-R peak ≤20 cM	M-R for localization

^aLinkage region is centered on maximum LOD score (for all families or OSA subset) and defines SNPs for Stage 2 association analysis.

ISSN: 1753-6561