title: Prevalence of Bardet-Biedl syndrome in Tunisia.
abstract: Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS, OMIM 209900) is a ciliopathy causing multivisceral abnormalities. This disease is mainly characterized by obesity, post-axial polydactyly, hypogenitalism, intellectual disabilities, pigmentary retinopathy, and renal deficiency. The prevalence of BBS has been estimated in different populations, ranging from 1 in 160,000 in European populations to 1 in 13,000 in Bedouins from Kuwait. In the present report, we present the first epidemiological study of Bardet-Biedl syndrome in Tunisia. From 1984 to 2009, 46 Tunisian families, including 67 affected members, were diagnosed as BBS. The patients' ages ranged between 6 months and 37 years, with median age of 10.4 years. High level of consanguinity was noted in our cohort (93.47%). The overall minimum prevalence in our population was estimated to be approximately 1 in 156,000 individuals. Our study reflects the actual frequency of BBS in North Africa and showed that this disease seems uncommon.
authors: Faculté de Médecine de Tunis, University Tunis el Manar, Tunis, Tunisia.
authors: Oussama
authors: O
authors: M'hamdi
authors: Ines
authors: I
authors: Ouertani
authors: Faouzi
authors: F
authors: Maazoul
authors: Habiba
authors: H
authors: Chaabouni-Bouhamed