Approximately 1.1 billion people currently live in countries where consanguineous marriages are customary, and among them one in every three marriages is between cousins. Opinions diverge between those warning of the possible health risks to offspring and others who highlight the social benefits of consanguineous marriages. A consanguinity study group of international experts and counselors met at the Geneva International ConsanguinityWorkshop from 3 rd to 7 th May 2010 to discuss the known and presumptive risks and benefits of close kin marriages, and to identify important future areas for research on consanguinity.The group highlighted the importance of evidence-based counselling recommendations for consanguineous marriages, and of undertaking both genomic and social research in defining the various influences and outcomes of consanguinity. Technological advances infor rapid high-throughput genome sequencing (HTS), and for the identification of copy number variants by comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) offer a significantn unprecedented opportunity to identify genotype-phenotype correlations focusing on autozygosity, the hallmark of consanguinity. The ongoing strong preferential culture of close kin marriages in many societies, and among migrant communities in Western countries, merits an equivalently detailed assessment of the social and genetic benefits of consanguinity in future studies.

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AimsThe prevalence of diabetic nephropathy and its risk factors have not been studied in a society known to have diabetes epidemic like Saudi Arabia. Using a large data base registry will provide a better understanding and accurate assessment of this chronic complication and its related risk factors.MethodologyA total of 54,670 patients with type 2 diabetes aged ≥25 years were selected from the Saudi National Diabetes Registry (SNDR) and analyzed for the presence of diabetic nephropathy. The American Diabetes Association (ADA) criterion was used to identify cases with microalbuminuria, macroalbuminuria and end stage renal disease (ESRD) for prevalence estimation and risk factor assessment.ResultsThe overall prevalence of diabetic nephropathy was 10.8%, divided into 1.2% microalbuminuria, 8.1%macroalbuninuria and 1.5% ESRD. Age and diabetes duration as important risk factors have a strong impact on the prevalence of diabetic nephropathy, ranging from 3.7% in patients aged 25–44 years and a duration of >5 years, to 21.8% in patients ≥65 years with a diabetes duration of ≥15 years. Diabetes duration, retinopathy, neuropathy, hypertension, age >45 years, hyperlipidemia, male gender, smoking, and chronologically, poor glycemic control has a significantly high risk for diabetic nephropathy.ConclusionThe prevalence of diabetic nephropathy is underestimated as a result of a shortage of screening programs. Risk factors related to diabetic nephropathy in this society are similar to other societies. There is thus an urgent need for screening and prevention programs for diabetic nephropathy among the Saudi population.

Diabetes and thyroid dysfunction found to exist simultaneously. In this regard, the present study looked into the prevalence of different forms of thyroid dysfunction and their risk factors among Type 2 diabetic Saudi patients. Methodology. A cross-sectional retrospective randomized hospital-based study of 411 Type 2 diabetic Saudi patients of >25 years of age was conducted to test the prevalence of different types of thyroid dysfunction and their risk factors. Results. The prevalence of different types of thyroid dysfunction is 28.5%, of which 25.3% had hypothyroidism, where 15.3%, 9.5%, and 0.5% are clinical, subclinical, and overt hypothyroidism, respectively. The prevalence of hyperthyroidism is 3.2%, of which subclinical cases accounted for 2.7% and overt hyperthyroidism accounted for 0.5%. Risk factors for thyroid dysfunction among Saudi Type 2 diabetic patients are family history of thyroid disease, female gender, and duration of diabetes of >10 years, while the risk was not significant in patients with history of goiter and patients aged >60 years. Smoking and parity show a nonsignificant reduced risk. Conclusion. Thyroid dysfunction is highly prevalent among Saudi Type 2 diabetic patients, and the most significant risk factors are family history of thyroid disease, female gender, and >10 years duration of diabetes.

Albuminuria is widely used to indicate early phases of diabetic nephropathy although it is limited by the fact that structural damage might precede albumin excretion. This necessitates identifying better biomarkers that diagnose or predict diabetic nephropathy. This is a cross-sectional hospital based study recruiting type 2 diabetic patients cohort aged 35–75 years with diabetes duration of ≥10 years. Out of total eligible 467 patients, 200 patients were with normal albumin excretion, 184 patients with microalbuminuria and 83 patients with macroalbuminuria. All the patients were tested for the 22 selected biomarkers including serum, plasma and urinary markers. Sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve (AUC) were calculated as measures of diagnostic accuracy. Out of the tested biomarkers, urinary transferrin, urinary Retinol binding protein (RBP) and serum osteopontin had the best diagnostic value for diabetic nephropathy presence based on the AUC value. The rest of the biomarkers had comparatively less or even no discriminative power. The urinary transferrin and RBP and serum osteopontin, had the best diagnostic value in type 2 diabetic patients at different stages of diabetic nephropathy. Further longitudinal prospective studies are needed to evaluate the predictive power of those markers for detecting diabetic nephropathy before any structural damage occurs.