prevalence of chromosomal aberrations in couples with recurrent miscarriages in the city of mashhad, iran: a cross-sectional study

background: recurrent miscarriage is defined as two or more recurrent spontaneous miscarriages. several causes have been suggested, among which, chromosomal abnormalities in couples is considered to have a role in this regard. however, its significance varies among different populations. the present study was carried out to evaluate the prevalence of chromosomal aberrations in couples with recurrent miscarriages in the city of mashhad. materials and methods: a retrospective study was performed on patient records at medical genetics clinic of imam reza hospital in mashhad (north-east of iran) between 2003 and 2006. results: of 151 records of recurrent miscarriages, 59 couples had undergone karyotyping testing. among those who had karyotyping results, only one (1.7%) had chromosomal abnormality. the observed abnormality was associated with chromosome 9 inversion. the prevalence of consanguineous marriage among these couples was 59.0%.   conclusion: in our study, unlike similar studies in other countries, the prevalence of chromosomal abnormalities was much lower. this could be interpreted either due to laboratory errors in our clinic or the real reduction in the association of chromosomal abnormalities with recurrent miscarriages in our population. regarding our data, it seems that, at least among our population, costly karyotyping testing is not necessary to predict further miscarriages or it could be limited to fewer cases having other associated factors. k e y w o r ds: recurrent miscarriages, karyotyping disorders, chromosomal abnormalities, iran