A study has been carried out in Riyadh to determine the incidence and distribution of Down’s syndrome births during a 9-year period from July 1982 to June 1991. Down’s syndrome was ascertained in 42 (23 females and 19 males) of 23,261 consecutive babies born alive to Saudi women, giving an incidence of 1 in 554 live births (1.8 per 1,000). A trend towards an increased incidence of Down’s syndrome with advanced maternal age or increased maternal parity was found. Cytogenetic studies were performed on 37 cases of which all but 1 were non-disjunction trisomy 21, while the remaining infant had a translocation. This study provides the first step for further epidemiological surveys of Down’s syndrome in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in order to prepare the ground for an effective antenatal screening programme for chromosomal disorders.

We retrospectively studied the charts of 115 Arab children with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA), all of whom satisfied the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for JRA. They were followed between 1978 and 1993 at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre and King Khalid University Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. All patients were followed up for at least 18 months. The female to male ratio was 1.2:1, and the mean age of onset of the disease was six years. Ninety of the patients were Saudis and the remainder were Middle Eastern Arabs. The mode of onset was systemic in 44%, polyarticular in 30%, and periarticular in 26%. Chronic uveitis was found in only two of the children (1.7%). Antinuclear antibody (ANA) was determined in 96 patients and was positive in 29 (30%). Amyloidosis was not detected in this study population. The clinical and laboratory manifestations of this disease are presented. This review shows that the spectrum of clinical presentation differs in Arab children from those in the West. Systemic and polyarticular onset subtypes were more common, and the incidence of uveitis and amyloidosis was lower. Whether this reflects a genuine difference in the pattern of the disease, or is due to bias in referral pattern, remains to be detected. The answer is currently being sought through an ongoing prospective study.

Human brucellosis is a multisystem disease that may notoriously mimic many other illnesses leading to misdiagnosis and increased morbidity. Six pediatric cases of brucellosis who had no epidemiologic evidence of the infection escaped early or correct recognition. The diagnosis of brucellosis was later made on the basis of significant brucella serology and positive blood or bone marrow culture. In endemic areas, a high index of suspicion should prevail in the evaluation of patients with vague or unexplained symptoms.

In the present investigation, the data sets of NCD (Non Communicable Diseases) risk factors, a standard report of Saudi Arabia 2005, in collaboration with WHO (World Health Organisation) were employed. The Oracle Data Miner (ODM) tool was used for the analysis and prediction of data. The data sets for different age groups in case of blood pressure treatment for hypertension for male using different modes had been studied. The age group was in between of 15 and 64 years. Data mining had been an appropriate and sufficiently sensitive method to analyze the outcomes of which mode of treatment is more effective to which age group. The five age group of NCD data had been put into two age groups of young and old denoted as 'Y' and 'O' respectively. Data mining showed that all the five modes of treatments were effective for older people due to hypertension at older ages.