True hermaphroditism with XX-XY mosaicism: report of a case

XX/XY chimerism encountered during prenatal diagnosis

46,XX/46,XY chimerism has previously been reported in patients with abnormal sexual development, and rarely in otherwise normal individuals. We report the first postnatally documented prenatal diagnosis of whole-body 46,XX/46,XY chimerism in humans, discovered by maternal age amniocentesis. The normal male phenotype in this child creates a dilemma in prenatal counselling, since genotypic male/female chimerism cannot be assumed to imply an abnormal sexual phenotype.

Unilateral true hermaphrodite with 46,XX/46,XY dispermic chimerism

A 13 year old female presented with ambiguous external genitalia, right inguinal ovotestis, left ovary, apparently normal Mullerian system, and absent Wolffian system. Cultured lymphocytes showed a 46,XX/46,XY karyotype. Histopathology of the gonads confirmed true hermaphroditism. The presence of two genetically different erythrocyte populations was observed. The findings suggested that the patient is a true hermaphrodite dispermic chimera.