Expanded Prenatal Genetic and Newborn Screening: One Family's Wild Ride

Abstract

The exponential rate at which genetic testing has been integrated into routine and high-risk obstetric care has been exciting to watch. With this technical explosion, however, the knowledge surrounding the benefits and limitations of prenatal genetic and newborn screening can be overlooked by both parents and providers. The following case exemplifies how a couple with infertility who underwent comprehensive prenatal expanded genetic carrier screening and parental karyotype experienced the benefits and limitations of such testing. It guides the reader through diagnostic testing for an infant, born to a father with a balanced translocation, who presented with an abnormal newborn screening result for an inherited metabolic disorder of fatty acid oxidation metabolism, very-long-chain acyl-coenzyme dehydrogenase deficiency, for which the prenatal expanded carrier screening result was negative.

Keywords: VLCAD; Very-long-chain acyl CoA dehydrogenase; genetic screening; genetic translocation; prenatal diagnosis.