Autosomal recessive diseases among Palestinian Arabs.

As a consequence of the high consanguinity rate among the Palestinian Arabs, many recessive disorders are present with a relatively high frequency. In a survey of 2000 different Palestinian Arab families who visited our genetic clinic, in 601 an autosomal recessive disease was diagnosed or strongly suspected. The distribution of these disorders was not uniform and some disorders, such as Krabbe disease, were found at high frequency in only a small part of the population. For some other disorders, a high prevalence was also reported among Palestinian Arabs living in other regions, for example, beta thalassaemia, Bardet-Biedl syndrome, Meckel syndrome, autosomal recessive congenital hydrocephalus, and recessive osteopetrosis. In addition, as another consequence of the high consanguinity rate, two different autosomal recessive diseases were diagnosed within the same sibship in 17 of the Palestinian Arab families.