Consanguineous marriages and congenital anomalies

摘要

Previous associations between consanguineous marriage and congenital anomalies have often been hampered by deficiencies in study design and small sample sizes. The prospective, multiethnic study of risk factors for congenital defects in Bradford, UK, reported in The Lancet by Eamonn Sheridan and colleagues, provides a welcome and important source of detailed information against which some of the pros and cons of intrafamilial marriage within contemporary communities can be assessed objectively.