Chromosomal Abnormalities Flashcards
How can miscarriage products be used if they are saved?
They can be cultured to look for chromosome abnormality
What % of successfully cultured miscarriage products have a chromosome abnormality?
50%
How many babies by term have an unbalanced chromosome abnormality?
1 in 250 - therefore there is v effective natural selection against conceptions with chromosome imbalance
What are the three types of chromosome abnormalities?
1) Aneuploidy - too many or too few chromosomes (not divisible by the haploid number)
2) Rearrangements
3) Deletions/duplications
What are the three types of chromosome rearrangements?
1) Translocations (balanced or unbalanced)
2) Inversions
3) Complex chromosome rearrangements (CCRs)
What are the clinical features of trisomy 21?
1) Intellectual disability - mild to moderate learning difficulties
2) Dysmorphic - flat nasal bridge, up slating palpebral fissures, epicanthic folds, protruding tongue, single palmer crease, clinodactyly, sandal gap
3) Cardiac defects (present in 40%) - 50% AV septal defect
What are the clinical features of trisomy 18?
1) Mental disability - severe
2) Dysmorphic - micrognathia (v small chin), prominent occiput, clenched overlapping fingers, prominent heels and rocker-bottom feet
3) Cardiac defects
What are the clinical features of trisomy 13?
1) Mental disability - severe
2) Dysmorphic - cleft lip and palate, holoprosencephaly, post axial polydactyly
3) Renal abnormalities
4) Cardiac defects
How does incidence of whole chromosome aneuploidies change as pregnancy progresses?
Incidence of whole chromosome aneuploidies decreases as pregnancy progresses
What are 5 examples of whole chromosome aneuploidies?
1) T21
2) T18 (Edward’s)
3) T13 (Patau)
4) 45,X (Turner)
5) 47,XXY (Klinefelter)
How does meiotic error (malsegregation) lead to whole chromosome aneuploidy?
Meiotic error during gametogenesis will result in abnormal gametes arising from that meiotic division
How does mitotic error (malsegregation) lead to whole chromosome aneuploidy?
- In the germline this will result in gonadal mosaicism
- In the embryo this will result in a mosaic embryo - the abnormal cell lines may be embryonic, extra embryonic or both dependent on where and when they arise
What are chromosome translocations?
- Exchange of material between chromosomes
- 2 types - Robertsonian and Reciprocal
What are acrocentric chromosomes?
Chromosomes with a short p arm
Describe Robertsonian translocations
- Result from fusion of two acrocentric chromosomes (13,14, 15 (d group) , 21, 22 (g group))
- Prevalence of 1 in 1000
- Most common are der(13;14) (75%) and der(14;21) (10%)
- Balanced carriers phenotypically normal e.g. 45,XX,der(13;14)(q10;q10)
- Balanced carriers have reproductive risks present as recurrent miscarriages, Patau syndrome, Down syndrome and male infertility and are offered prenatal diagnosis
What is an example of a Robertsonian translocation?
- der(13;14)(q10;q10)
- 45 chromosomes but phenotypically normal
Who has a 15% risk of T21 pregnancy?
Female carriers of der(14;21) (can lead to unbalanced translocation)
Describe reciprocal translocations
- Exchange of material between two non-homologous chromosomes
- Prevalence of 1 in 500
- Balanced carriers are generally phenotypically normal
- If we diagnose a de novo balanced reciprocal translocation (it has arisen in that individual) we give ~ 5% risk of developmental delay as there is no family history