Torsion dystonia in israel

A country‐wide search for idiopathic torsion dystonia (ITD) in Israel between 1969 and 1975 revealed 42 patients (41 Jewish and 1 Druze Arab). Prevalence of ITD per million population, age‐adjusted to the United States population in 1970, was 10.8 in the total Jewish population (22.0 among Jews of European extraction contrasted with 1.5 among Jews with Afro‐Asian forebears). Among Europeans, the highest prevalence was among Jews from Eastern Europe. The average age‐adjusted annual incidence rates per million population were 0.43 in the total Jewish population, 0.98 in the Europeans, and 0.11 in the Afro‐Asians. Among the 40 patients for whom familial data were available, the majority of cases (26) were sporadic. The other 14 belonged to four unrelated European families, all of Russian‐Polish origin. The pattern of inheritance in these four families fits an autosomal dominant model with incomplete penetrance.