Parental Consanguinity and Birth Defects in Lebanon

Consanguinity ("blood relation", from the Latin consanguinitas) is the property of being from the same kinship as another person. In that aspect, consanguinity is the quality of being descended from the same ancestor as another person.

The risk for birth defects in the offspring of first-cousin matings has been estimated to increase sharply compared to non-consanguineous marriages.

Among 50,396 live births, 1,637 were diagnosed with one or more birth defects for an overall prevalence of 32.5‰. The most prevalent defects were cardiovascular, urogenital and musculoskeletal with 15.1‰, 6.3‰ and 5.7‰, respectively. Approximately 40% of affected newborns had multiple defects involving one or more organs. Syndromes were suspected in 128 neonates of whom 77.3% were diagnosed with chromosomal aneuploidies (mostly Down syndrome). Consanguinity was reported among 15.73% of parents, and the odds of BD were found to be significantly increased among first-cousins consanguineous couples.

Findings of this study estimated for the first time the overall prevalence of BD in Lebanon, with congenital heart anomalies being most common. They further established a significant association between parental consanguinity and the odds of BD in off-springs.

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Jessica Lopez
Editorial Assistant
Journal of Genetic Disorders & Genetic Reports

Email ID : genetics@scitecjournals.com

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