A multigenic disease is influenced by variants in more than two genes. The term overlaps with polygenic and shades into complex disease, where many genes, each contributing a small effect, combine with one another and sometimes with the environment. Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) is not multigenic in this sense: it is monogenic, with each subtype caused by a single gene, though modifier genes can influence how severe a given subtype is.
A Name That Does Too Much Work
Jean-Martin Charcot's name appears throughout medicine, but nowhere does it create more confusion than in the foot. Learn why the CMT foot and Charcot neuroarthropathy, also known as Charcot foot, share a name yet differ in how they develop, appear, and are managed.
