Prenatal diagnosis of the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome.

Amniocentesis provides the prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal abnormalities and many biochemical disorders. Many of the biochemical assays are not routinely performed in many institutions. Those institutions utilizing autoradiographic studies routinely can make a diagnosis of biochemical disorders satisfactorily by utilizing a combination of bank cells, amniotic fluid cells and autoradiographic techniques. An example is given of this technique used in a patient with a family history of Lesch-Nyhan syndrome.

Spontaneous and X-ray induced chromosomal aberrations in selected connective tissue diseases.

Chromosome studies were performed on peripheral blood lymphocytes of 28 patients with connective tissue disease (6 with progressive systemic sclerosis, 6 with systemic lupus erythematosus, 6 with anti-nuclear antibody positive rheumatoid arthritis, 6 with anti-nuclear antibody negative rheumatoid arthritis, and 4 with mixed connective tissue disease) and on 17 controls to determine the frequency of spontaneous as well as X-ray (75 rads) induced aberrations. The mean spontaneous chromosomal aberration frequency for the 28 patients (9.1%) was significantly (P = 0.038) greater than that of controls (6.4%). When patients were categorized into specific clinically designated connective tissue disease subdivisions for comparison with the controls, only X-irradiated cells from the progressive systemic sclerosis group displayed significantly elevated levels of total chromosomal aberrations over those of the control group. The X-irradiated lymphocytes from these patients had an average of 23.6% aberrations per patient, while those of the control group showed an average of 14.9% per patient (P less than 0.05).