[Association between consanguinity with the ocular congenital abnormalities in Togo]

To investigate the possibility of an association between parental consanguinity and the occurrence of congenital ocular abnormalities.

A retrospective cross-sectional study was carried out over 3 years, from January 2016 to December 2018, in the pediatric ophthalmology unit of the University Hospital Campus of Lomé (Togo). It included children with congenital ocular abnormalities. Age, gender, geographic origin (city or urban area, village or rural area), degree of consanguinity of parents and types of congenital ocular abnomalities were the variables of study. Odds Ratio (OR) and logistic regression were used to investigate the correlation between parental consanguinity and the occurrence of congenital ocular abnormalities. A P-value of<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Among the 103 patients with congenital ocular abnormalities, there were 60 (58.2%) males and 43 (41.8%) females. The mean age of the patients was 16 months, range 1 month-5 years. Patients born to consanguineous parents were 26.2% (27) of the total population. Of these 27 patients, 25 (92.6%) were born to second-cousin marriages and 24 (88.89%) came from a rural area. Parental consanguinity was correlated with developmental abnormalities of the globe (OR=37.50; 95% CI_: [4.46-314.80]; r=3.62; P=0.00), sclerocornea (OR=13.04; 95% CI: [1.39-122.54]; r=2.57; P=0.02) and corneal dystrophy (OR=9.37; 95% CI: [0.93-94.36]; r=2.24; P=0.02).

Our study suggests the existence of a correlation between parental consanguinity and the occurrence of congenital ocular abnormalities.