16. Genetic Counselling Flashcards
why are families referred for genetic counselling: child
- birth anomalies
- dysmorphic features
- learning difficulties
why are families referred for genetic counselling: adult
- diagnosis
- predictive testing
- carrier testing
- family history
- foetal loss or recurrent misscarriages (x3)
why are families referred for genetic counselling; pregnancy
- known genetic disorder
- abnormality detected on screening
genetic counselling
the process of helping people understand and adapt to the medical, psychological and familial implications of genetic contributions to disease
what proportion of patients have a genetic disease and congenital malformations
4-5%
what proportion of patients have chronic disease with major genetic component
10% of adults
what are the two basic types of Genetic analysis
cytogenetic analysis
molecular analysis
what is cytogenetic investigation
looking at the number and structure of chromosomes
what are numerical chromosomal abnormalities
conditions that are caused by the loss or gain of a whole chromosome
explain the three different patterns of chromosomes that can cause down syndrome
- 95% of people have three separate copies of chromosome 21
- 4% have the extra copy of chromosome 21 because of a Robertsonian translocation
- 1% have mosaicism with normal and trisomy 21 cell lines (usually milder features because of the presence of normal cells)
Non-Invasive Prenatal Diagnosis (NIPD)
NIPD is a prenatal screening test that can be performed beginning around the 10th week of pregnancy
small fragments of cell-free DNA from the placenta enter the mothers bloodstream
a sample of this is analyzed for evidence of extra or missing fetal DNA segments
reciprocal translocation (chromosomal disorders)
conditions that are caused by a loss of gain of a piece of a chromosome, or by chromosomal material arranged differently
explain a balanced translocation
two chromosomes break when cells are dividing during egg or sperm formation or early development of a baby.
two fragments “swap places”
unbalanced translocation
when there is an extra piece of one chromosome
and/ or a missing piece of another
explain how microarray is carried out
- you have the patient sample to be analyzed and also a reference sample
- fluorescent labels are added to each sample, to help differenciate them
- samples are then mixed
- sample is then added to a microarray slide so that it can hybridize
- microarray slide is scanned and the fluorescent signal at each spot on the microarray corresponds to the abundance of the target sequence in the sample