Thrombasthenia in Iraqi Jews

Glanzmann's thrombasthenia is an extremely rare hemostatic disorder characterized by a severe lifelong bleeding tendency, prolonged bleeding time, impaired clot retraction and failure of the platelets to aggregate with high concentrations of ADP. A recent survey on this disorder in the major Israeli medical centers revealed 19 cases in the Iraqi Jewish community (total population about 240,000). Pedigree analysis shows that thrombasthenia is an autosomal recessive disorder.