Exploring the association between glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and color blindness in Southeast Asia
Article Category: Brief communication
Published Online: Mar 21, 2018
Page range: 365 - 370
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/abm-2018-0009
Keywords
© 2017 Ingfar Soontarawirat, Mallika Imwong, Charles J. Woodrow, Chalisa Louicharoen Cheepsunthorn, Nicholas P.J. Day, Richard Paul, Pratap Singhasivanon
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
Background
Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency poses problems for the treatment of
Objectives
To determine the association between G6PD deficiency and color blindness in a Karen population that lives in an area endemic for
Method
We examined the phenotypic association between G6PD deficiency and color blindness.
Results
Of 186 male participants successfully assessed for color blindness using the Ishihara 38 plates test, 10 (5.4%) were red–green color blind, while 1 individual was totally color blind. There was a nonsignificant trend toward negative association (repulsion) between G6PD deficiency and red–green color blindness; 34/35 individuals with the Mahidol variant of G6PD deficiency had normal vision, while 9 of the 10 red–green color blind individuals were G6PD normal. A single individual had both conditions.
Conclusions
Despite the long-range haplotype associated with G6PD deficiency in this population, color blindness is not informative in terms of predicting G6PD deficiency in this population. The most likely explanation is that there are multiple genetic causes of red–green color blindness.