Incidence of chromosome aberrations among 11 148 newborn children

Summary

Chromosome analysis has been made of 11 148 children; 29 had sex chromosome abnormalities (2.60 per 1000) and 64 autosomal abnormalities (5.74 per 1000). The total incidence of major chromosome abnormalities was 8.34 per 1000.

The incidence of chromosome variations was 16.8 per 1000. The most common variants were those with variation in size of short arms-satellites in D and G chromosomes and variations in Y chromosome size. So far, very little is known about the significance of such chromosome variations.

The incidence of most chromosome abnormaliies in liveborn children is well established by now from studies of a total of 54749 consecutively liveborn children in 6 studies as shown in Table 1. More chromosome studies of liveborn children are, however, needed for several purposes such as finding families with chromosome translocations, studying segregation rates and giving genetic advice to families with inheritable chromosome aberrations and an increased risk of getting children with unbalanced chromosome abnormalities, mental retardation and physical abnormalities. One of the main purposes in chromosome examination of newborn children is to study the development of children with different chromosome abnormalities, especially those with sex chromosome abnormalities, and compare them with controls, treat them when needed and give advice to the parents of such children.