major congenital metabolic disorders in the first 12 years of life in 79,100 consecutively born children in qazvin province

objective deficient enzyme activity may cause congenital metabolic defects. these defectsare inherited in an autosomal recessive, autosomal dominant, and x-linkedpatterns. this study was aimed at investigating the occurrence of metabolicdiseases in qazvin province. materials & methods this cross-sectional study was performed on 79,100 children aged 12 years orless between 2000 and 2010. clinical manifestations, laboratory findings, and allother essential information were assessed to precisely diagnose the metabolicdiseases. the sorted information on congenital metabolic defects of the patients,information included in a checklist, and data were analyzed usnig spss. results a total of 57 metabolic disorders were recorded. the difference in the prevalenceof metabolic disorders between male (29 cases) and female (28 cases) wasnot statistically significant. the most frequent congenital metabolic disorderamong our patients was phenylketonuria (pku; 5 per 1,000 cases), and the leastcommon disorder was galactosemia (3 per 1,000 cases). conclusion timely detection and management of congenital metabolic disorders canhelp save the affected children. prenatal screening programs, molecular genetherapy, and counseling for consanguineous marriage can play important rolesin reducing the rate of metabolic disorders in this province.