Chuvash-type congenital polycythemia in 4 families of Asian and Western European ancestry

The Chuvash form of polycythemia is an autosomal recessive disorder common to a large number of families in central Russia. Affected individuals have been reported to be homozygous for an Arg200Trp mutation in the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) gene. We have screened 78 patients with erythrocytosis and found 8 of Bangladeshi and Pakistani origin to be homozygous for the Arg200Trp mutation and another of English descent to be heterozygous. Of these patients, 5 have elevated serum erythropoietin (Epo) levels, while the other 4 have Epo values in the normal range. The heterozygous patient does not fulfill the Chuvash criterion for homozygosity of the Arg200Trp mutation and consequently may harbor a further, as yet uncharacterized, mutation. This mutation has a wider geographic distribution than originally presumed and haplotype analysis suggests a common origin of the Arg200Trp mutation in the 4 families, but it still remains to be established if it has arisen independently of the Chuvash population.