<abstract xml:lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Prenatal diagnosis is testing for diseases or conditions in a fetus or embryo before it is born. It employs a variety of techniques to determine the health and condition of an unborn fetus. The main goal of this process is to perform prenatal diagnosis at the earliest possible stage of gestation. In this regard, quantitative fluorescent-polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR), a novel technique that is fast and reliable, was employed to detect aneuploidies (13, 18, 21, X and Y) without the need of the time-consuming culturing process. The QF-PCR method can detect five different chromosome aneuploidies with 98.6% accuracy. In this study, 1874 amniotic fluid samples of pregnant subjects, who were referred to the Department of Medical Biology and Genetics, Adana, Turkey (molecular biology section), were analyzed with the QF-PCR technique by employing 27 short tandem repeat (STR) markers to detect chromosomes 13, 18, 21, X and Y aneuploidies. We detected 31 subjects (1.7%) with aneuploidies or euploidies out of the 1874 subjects. The average age of the pregnant subjects was 32 (range: 14-49). Abnormal karyotypes detected were as follows: 47, XX,+21 (19.4%, 6/31), 47, XY,+21 (48.4%, 15/31), 48, XXX,+21 (3.2%, 1/31), 69, XXX (3.2%, 1/31), 47, XY,+13 (3.2%, 1/31), 47, XXY (9.6%, 3/31), 47, XXX (9.6%, 3/31) and 45, X (3.2%, 1/31). Moreover, some STR markers were found to be more specific to the Turkish population. In conclusion, QF-PCR can be regarded as an alternative method of conventional cytogenetic analysis as it is a rapid and reliable method; however, in most cases it is required to be supported or validated with conventional cytogenetic karyotyping and some STR markers employed for QF-PCR can be more informative for a given population.</p></abstract>

Prenatal diagnosis is testing for diseases or conditions in a fetus or embryo before it is born. It employs a variety of techniques to determine the health and condition of an unborn fetus. The main goal of this process is to perform prenatal diagnosis at the earliest possible stage of gestation. In this regard, quantitative fluorescent-polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR), a novel technique that is fast and reliable, was employed to detect aneuploidies (13, 18, 21, X and Y) without the need of the time-consuming culturing process. The QF-PCR method can detect five different chromosome aneuploidies with 98.6% accuracy. In this study, 1874 amniotic fluid samples of pregnant subjects, who were referred to the Department of Medical Biology and Genetics, Adana, Turkey (molecular biology section), were analyzed with the QF-PCR technique by employing 27 short tandem repeat (STR) markers to detect chromosomes 13, 18, 21, X and Y aneuploidies. We detected 31 subjects (1.7%) with aneuploidies or euploidies out of the 1874 subjects. The average age of the pregnant subjects was 32 (range: 14-49). Abnormal karyotypes detected were as follows: 47, XX,+21 (19.4%, 6/31), 47, XY,+21 (48.4%, 15/31), 48, XXX,+21 (3.2%, 1/31), 69, XXX (3.2%, 1/31), 47, XY,+13 (3.2%, 1/31), 47, XXY (9.6%, 3/31), 47, XXX (9.6%, 3/31) and 45, X (3.2%, 1/31). Moreover, some STR markers were found to be more specific to the Turkish population. In conclusion, QF-PCR can be regarded as an alternative method of conventional cytogenetic analysis as it is a rapid and reliable method; however, in most cases it is required to be supported or validated with conventional cytogenetic karyotyping and some STR markers employed for QF-PCR can be more informative for a given population.

Rapid Detection of Fetal Aneuploidies by Quantitative Fluorescent-Polymerase Chain Reaction for Prenatal Diagnosis in the Turkish Population

Department of Medical Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Rize University, Rize, Turkey

Department of Medical Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Çukurova University, Adana, Turkey

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Çukurova University, Adana, Turkey

Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, Çukurova University, Adana, Turkey

Balkan Journal of Medical Genetics

Prenatal diagnosis is testing for diseases or conditions in a fetus or embryo before it is born. It employs a variety of techniques to determine the health and...

Rapid Detection of Fetal Aneuploidies by Quantitative Fluorescent-Polymerase Chain Reaction for Prenatal Diagnosis in the Turkish Population

Published Online: Jul 20, 2012

Page range: 11 - 17

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/v10034-012-0002-2

Keywords
Aneuploidy, Cytogenetics, Euploidy, Prenatal diagnosis, Quantitative fluorescent-polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR), Trisomy

This content is open access.

Rapid Detection of Fetal Aneuploidies by Quantitative Fluorescent-Polymerase Chain Reaction for Prenatal Diagnosis in the Turkish Population

Published Online: Jul 20, 2012

Page range: 11 - 17

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/v10034-012-0002-2

KeywordsAneuploidy, Cytogenetics, Euploidy, Prenatal diagnosis, Quantitative fluorescent-polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR), Trisomy

This content is open access.

Keywords
Aneuploidy, Cytogenetics, Euploidy, Prenatal diagnosis, Quantitative fluorescent-polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR), Trisomy