The importance of rapid aneuploidy screening and prenatal diagnosis in the detection of numerical chromosomal abnormalities

OBJECTIVES: Evaluation of Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) as a tool for rapid aneuploidy screening (RAS) of high risk pregnancies, before its approval in the national antenatal screening and genetic diagnosis program in Egypt. METHODS: The cytogenetic data of prenatal specimens, and results of FISH of 100 patients performed between, January 2009 and December 2009, at the Medical Genetics Center (MGC) laboratory were retrieved and reviewed. AneuVysion Assay kit was used for detection of 13, 21, X, Y, 18 aneuploidies. RESULTS: Maternal age varied from 21 to 44 years (mean was 35.6 year). Ninety percent of pregnancies had normal chromosomes and 10% of the cases had numerical chromosomal abnormalities. Trisomy 21 was the most frequent chromosomal disorder across all indications (5%), followed by Turner syndrome (2%), trisomy 18 (2%), and trisomy 13 (1%). When comparing the FISH data with karyotype results for chromosomes 13, 18, 21, X, and Y in the 83 individual tested, no false positive or negative results were detected by the FISH assay. The result obtained by FISH and the banding cytogenetic were in complete accordance. CONCLUSION: This study supports the integration of amniotic fluid (AF) FISH as a RAS test, in to routine antenatal practice for identification of chromosome aneuploidies. There are trends towards delayed childbearing and most cases of Down Syndrome (DS) are currently detected post-nataly in the Egyptian population. Consequently, the live birth prevalence of DS has increased, which might lead to a serious negative public health effects.