Two Ethnic Clusters with Huntington Disease in Israel: The Case of Mountain Jews and Karaites

Jennifer Zitser, Avner Thaler, Noit Inbar, Alona Gad, Achinoam Faust-Socher, Diana Paleacu, Marieta Anca-Herschkovitch, Yakov Balash, Hertzel Shabtai, Elissa L. Ash, Ludmila Merkin, Yael Manor, Meir Kestenbaum, Aya Bar David, Chava Peretz, Tova Naiman, Anat Bar-Shira, Avi Orr-Urtreger, Nira Dangoor, Nir GiladiTanya Gurevich

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Background: Worldwide prevalence estimates of Huntington disease (HD) vary widely, with no reliable information regarding the Jewish population in Israel. Methods: This specialized tertiary single-center cross-sectional study assessed clinical, cognitive, and demographic characteristics of 84 HD patients who were treated at the Movement Disorder Unit of the Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel. Results: Our cohort was composed of one-third Ashkenazi Jews, 27% Mountain Jews (Caucasus Jews), 18% Sephardi Jews, and 21% Karaites, with both Mountain Jews and Karaites over-represented compared to their relevant proportion in the population of the state of Israel, which is less than 1%. No between-group differences were detected regarding the number of CAG (cytosine-adenine-guanine) repeats, age at onset, disease duration, years from symptom onset to diagnosis, gender, years of education, Unified Huntington Disease Rating Scale scores, or the Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores. Conclusion: We detected clustering of HD among the population treated at our Medical Center, which has the only specialized HD clinic in the country, with a high percentage of HD among 2 relatively small subpopulations of Jews: Mountain Jews and Karaites.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)281-285
Number of pages5
JournalNeurodegenerative Diseases
Volume17
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2017
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 S. Karger AG, Basel. Copyright: All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Huntington disease
  • Karaites
  • Mountain Jews

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Neurology
  • Clinical Neurology

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