Marked parental consanguinity as a cause for increased major malformations in an Israeli Arab community
✍ Scribed by Jaber, Lutfi ;Merlob, Paul ;Bu, Xiangdong ;Rotter, Jerome I. ;Shohat, Mordechai
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1992
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 535 KB
- Volume
- 44
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0148-7299
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✦ Synopsis
It is common among Israeli Arabs who live in the villages to prefer consanguineous marriages, particularly among fwst cousins. In addition, such villages are populated by a few (< 20) original families, and inter-familyhntervillage marriages are infrequent. The purpose of this study was to examine the consequences of such "consanguinity" in Taibe, a large Arab village, 30 km from Te1 Aviv. Six hundred ten families were prospectively ascertained through infants who were routinely seen in the local "Well Baby Clinics." A significant increase in the incidence of major malformations was noted in relation to the closeness of the parental relationship. For the index cases group the prevalence of individu a l ~ with major malformations were 5.8% in the product of inter-village marriages, 8.3% in the intra-village non-related matings, 15.1% in the distant consanguineous group, and up to 15.8% in the progeny of first-cousin marriages (P < 0.001). In the siblings of these index cases, the frequency of major malformations was 4.3%, 4.5%, 10.5%, and 10.3%, respectively. Analysis of the major malformations by each body system showed the same trend. The study demonstrates a marked high rate of consanguineous marriages, whose effect leads to a marked increase in major malformations and thus a prominent public health problem in such villages. This requires a unique genetic counseling approach.