METHODS: A population-wide hospital discharge database in Singapore was used to identify all hospital admissions with a primary discharge diagnosis of PACG (International Classification of Disease-CM code: 365.2). The Singapore census was used for denominator data.
RESULTS: Between 1993 and 1997 there were 894 hospital admissions for PACG. The mean annual rate of PACG admissions was 11.1 per 100 000 (95% confidence interval (CI), 10.4, 11.8) among people aged 30 years and over. The annual rate was highest for Chinese (age and sex adjusted rate: 12.2 per 100 000), which was twice that of Malays (6.0 per 100 000) and Indians (6.3 per 100 000). Females had two times higher rates than males in all three races (age adjusted relative risk: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.7, 2.3).
CONCLUSION: Malay and Indian people had identical rates of hospital admissions for PACG, which were only half the rates compared with Chinese.
METHODOLOGY: During this study, enzyme activity was measured in 53/59 (89.8%) hospital-diagnosed G6PD-deficient neonates (34 Malays, 12 Chinese, and seven other ethnic groups) born consecutively in the Kuala Lumpur Maternity Hospital. All neonates, except one, were males.
RESULTS: The mean level of enzyme activity of the 52 males G6PD-deficient neonates (0.47 iu/g Hb, 95% confidence intervals: 0.37, 0.57) was less than 10% of that of normal Malaysian male neonates. The enzyme activity of the only female G6PD-deficient infant, at 1.11 iu/g Hb, was 12.5% of the mean G6PD enzyme activity of normal females.
CONCLUSION: Our results showed that G6PD deficiency in Malaysian neonates predominantly affects males and is usually severe.