© 1994 by Oxford University Press
research-article |
Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency and the Sickle Cell Gene in Makkah, Saudi Arabia
*Medical Biochemistry Department and WHO Collaborating Centre, College of Medicine and King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
**Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, King Saud University Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
***Department of Paediatrics, College of Medicine and King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
****Ministry of Health Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Correspondence: Professor Mohsen A. F. El-Hazmi, Medical Biochemistry Department (30), College of Medicine and King Khalid University Hospital, PO Box 2925, Riyadh 11461, Saudi Arabia.
This study was conducted on 689 Saudi males and females living in the Makkah area in the western province of Saudi Arabia. The frequency of severe glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G-6-PD) deficiency in the male and female populations was 0.055 and 0.042 respectively. The normal G-6-PD was G-6-PD-B+ and the G-6-PD phenotypes identified included G-6-PD-A+, G-6-PD-A, G-6-PD-Mediterranean, and G-6-PD-Mediterranean-like at gene frequencies of 0.0288, 0.0026, 0.05497, and 0.1969 in the male population and 0.026, 0.0146, 0.0407, and 0.02606 in the female population. The main variants producing severe and mild G-6-PD deficiency were G-6-PD-Mediterranean and G-6-PD-Mediterranean-like, respectively.
The sickle cell gene was identified at a frequency of 0.029 and no interaction between sickle cell and G-6-PD deficiency genes was encountered.