FAMILIAL MEDITERRANEAN-FEVER - HIGH GENE-FREQUENCY AMONG THE NON-ASHKENAZIC AND ASHKENAZIC JEWISH POPULATIONS IN ISRAEL

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive recurrent episodic inflammatory disorder that occurs with high frequency in cer tain populations in the Mediterranean area. Using extended pedigree da ta of 90 FMF probands, we calculated the FMF gene frequency in various ethnic groups in Israel by analyzing the frequency in a total of 2,31 2 first cousins. The heterozygote frequencies were as follows: 1:4.9 ( 0.2 +/- 0.06) for the Libyan subgroup, 1:6.4 (0.16 +/- 0.03) for the o ther North African countries subgroup, 1:13.3 (0.07 +/- 0.04) for the Iraqi subgroup, 1:11.4 (0.09 +/- 0.06) for the Ashkenazic subgroup, an d 1:29.4 (0.03 +/- 0.03) for the remaining ethnic groups. The observed number of affected parents and offspring of the probands was in agree ment with the estimated gene frequency. Thus, the FMF gene frequency i s very high in all Jewish ethnic groups in Israel, especially those or iginating in North African countries. This also explains the parent-to offspring transmission of FMF reported in North-African Jews. (C) 199 5 Wiley-Liss, Inc.