Objective: In recent years, new possibilities of prenatal diagnosis have opened up, due to the development of techniques which guarantee shorter time of obtaining results. One of those methods, called Rapid-FISH (rapid fluorescence in situ hybridization), for detecting numerical aberrations of chromosomes 13, 18, 21, X and Y without culturing, enables to have the results in 2-5 days. The time necessary to obtain fetal karyotype result with the usage of the classical cytogenetic methods is about 2-3 weeks and depends mainly on the culture growth rate.
Design: The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Rapid-FISH technique in detecting numerical chromosome aberrations of 13, 21, 18, X and Y in amniocytes' nuclei from amniotic fluid.
Materials and methods: Rapid-FISH and cytogenetic analysis has been performed for 161 pregnancies in the Department of Genetics at Wroclaw Medical University during years 2005 and 2006. The FISH was performed using AneuVysion kit (Vysis), according to a standard protocol.
Results: All normal and abnormal results were confirmed by classical cytogenetic method (GTG banding and karyotyping). Additional chromosomal aberrations, not possible to be detected in FISH, were observed in case of two patients with normal results from FISH analysis.
Conclusions: Rapid-FISH is a reliable and fast method for detecting numerical chromosomal aberrations in prenatal diagnosis and should be implemented as a routine diagnostic procedure in pregnancies with high risk of fetal aneuploidy (of chromosomes 13, 18, 21, X i Y).