“…Different proportions of patients having biallelic SLC26A4 mutations were revealed in a relatively limited number of large NSHL studies performed without preselection of patients with EVA or Pendred syndrome: 3.5% of sib pairs from the UK Caucasian child population [ 24 ], 0.9% of Czech patients [ 25 ], 2.9% of Brazilian patients [ 26 ], 6.3% (0–8.3%) of patients from different regions of Iran [ 27 ], 7.2% of patients from Pakistan [ 28 ], 3.5% of patients from southern India [ 29 ], 1.1% of Korean patients [ 6 ], 4.6% of the Vietnamese pediatric population [ 30 ], 1–1.5% of Mongolian patients [ 6 , 12 ], up to 15.3% of patients from different regions of mainland China [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ], and 5.8% of Taiwanese patients [ 13 ]. A significantly higher proportion of biallelic SLC26A4 mutations was found in the studies on cohorts of patients who were pre-screened for EVA, reaching 65–95% in Asian cohorts and approximately one-fourth of patients with nonsyndromic EVA in Caucasian cohorts, which is probably influenced by the different ethnicities of patients and an increased sensitivity of sequencing techniques [ 7 , 10 , 22 , 35 , 36 , 37 ].…”