Summary
We report the unique finding of a human fetus with 44 chromosomes with homozygous 14;21 translocations. This fetus appeared phenotypically normal but the long-term neurodevelopmental outcome had this pregnancy continued could not be predicted. We speculate one 14;21 translocation was inherited from her father and one arose de novo being maternal in origin. A previous sibling with psychomotor retardation has an abnormal chromosome complement of 45,XX,dup(7)(q21→pter), t(14;21)(p11;q11). The mother's underlying disease, systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE), and her prior chemotherapy may have contributed to the appearance of these chromosome aberrations. It is interesting that although 14;21 translocations are among the commonest structural chromosome rearrangements in man, there are no previous reports in newborn surveys of a child with 44 chromosomes resulting from the mating of two identical Robertsonian translocation carrier parents.
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Rockman-Greenberg, C., Ray, M., Evans, J.A. et al. Homozygous Robertsonian translocations in a fetus with 44 chromosomes. Hum Genet 61, 181–184 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00296437
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00296437