Duplication of the short arm of chromosome 9. Analysis of five cases

Five females with duplication of the short arm of one chromosome 9 are reported, one tetrasomic and four trisomic for 9p. The tetrasomy is due to an isochromosome 9p while the trisomies are due in one case to an intrachromosomal duplication present in lymphocytes but not in fibroblasts, two are secondary to translocations with chromosomes 22 and 13 respectively, and one is a mosaic with a cell line with an additional deleted chromosome 9 present in lymphocytes and fibroblasts. This analysis indicates that duplications 9p may result in impairment of ovarian function. The phenotypic differences between trisomy and tetrasomy 9p are discussed.

Reciprocal translocations in couples with spontaneous abortions

A sample of 87 couples addressed to cyto-genetic analysis after the occurrence of one or more spontaneous abortions was studied. Reciprocal translocations were found in three couples. In reviewing the literature, the data were broken down and reassembled in order to estimate the translocation frequency in homogeneous samples. The conclusions of this re-examination is that for those couples with a history of frequent spontaneous abortions, a cytogenetic investigation is advisable, even if there have been no cases of still-borns or malformed children.