Ethnic variations in birthweight percentiles in Kuwait.

The objectives of this retrospective study were to assess the effect of ethnicity on birthweight percentiles and to compare ethnic-specific percentiles with other references. Analysis was made of 35 768 singleton live births from 22 to 44 completed weeks of gestation at two major obstetric hospitals in Kuwait, after exclusion of data with inaccurate gestational age, major congenital abnormalities, stillbirths, and outlying birthweights. The population included four major ethnic groups: Gulf Arabs, Mediterranean Arabs, Egyptians, and a group combining Indians and Southeast Asians. Total population and ethnic-specific smoothed birthweight percentiles according to gestational age were developed. Indians-Asians had the smallest birthweights, the highest prevalence of small-for-gestational-age (SGA) birthweights and the lowest prevalence of large-for-gestational-age (LGA) birthweights. On the contrary, Egyptians had the largest birthweights, the lowest prevalence of SGA birthweights and the highest prevalence of LGA birthweights. Plotting our birthweights on a reference from Canada resulted in a low prediction rate for SGA and a low sensitivity in identifying LGA of all ethnic groups. We conclude that interpretation of fetal growth and birthweight should involve locally derived and ethnically specific percentiles based on accurately calculated gestational age.

Role of human leukocyte antigen DRB1*0307 and DRB1*0308 in susceptibility to juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE: To study the prevalence of Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) DR alleles in children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA). METHODS: DNA samples from 64 children with oligoarticular and seronegative polyarticular JRA and 64 controls of the same ethnic background were analyzed using PCR-sequence specific primers (PCR-SSP) method. Analysis took into account the onset subtype, the presence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) and the presence of chronic anterior uveitis, a recognised serious complication of JRA. RESULTS: A high prevalence of DR3 alleles were detected in children with oligoarticular JRA compared to controls (p < 0.05). DR3 alleles were the commonest also in patients with positive ANA as well as those with chronic anterior uveitis. The interesting finding in this study is the absence of two DR3 alleles, namely DRB1*0307 and DRB1 *0308 in the control group while present in significant proportion in children with JRA. DRB1*0307 was present in 16% of children with oligoarticular subtype and 15% of those with polyarticular JRA. DRB1*0308 was only detected in children with oligoarticular JRA, none of the children with polyarticular JRA or the controls had this allele. CONCLUSION: These findings support earlier observations linking these two DR3 alleles, namely 0307 and 0308, to the genetic susceptibility to JRA.