In Caucasians, C282YHFE homozygotes are numerous, but they are only predisposed to hemochromatosis; complete organ disease develops in a minority, due to alcohol abuse or concurrent genetic modifiers that are now being identified.
Unlike these rare instances, in white people, homozygotes for C282Y polymorphism in HFE are numerous, but they are only predisposed to hemochromatosis; complete organ disease develops in a minority, when these individuals abuse alcohol or from other unidentified modifying factors.
These patients differed from patients without PCT in that they were men, past history of alcohol abuse and HFE gene mutations were more common and the source of infection was almost always unknown.