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The haplotype-relative-risk design compares transmitted alleles to the corresponding untransmitted parental copies, used as internal controls for an affected offspring. If allele-1/allele-2 transmitted counts are $w,x$ and untransmitted counts are $y,z$, the allele-1 odds ratio estimate is $wz/(xy)$. An unmatched Pearson chi-squared test of independence treats this as a two-by-two table. The transmission disequilibrium test instead keeps parent-specific pairing and uses only discordant transmissions. The sampling assumptions of the unmatched calculation and any missing-parent reconstruction must be justified separately.

Heterozygosity means that the two allele states at a diploid genetic locus differ; an individual with that property is a heterozygote. Heterozygous parental genotypes provide alternative alleles for a transmission disequilibrium test.

A heterozygote carries different alleles at a diploid locus. Under ordinary Mendelian segregation each is transmitted to an offspring with probability $1/2$. Only heterozygous parents provide a comparison between alternative transmissions in the transmission disequilibrium test.