Hepatic Wilson's disease is often a difficult diagnosis to confirm. This review examines the current role of genetic tests for Wilson's disease and is aimed at clinicians caring for patients with this disease. We discuss how genetic testing is carried out for Wilson's disease, indications for these tests, and genetic counseling for the family. In contrast to the advances in diagnosis of Wilson'...

Cancer is a genetic disease caused by changes in the DNA sequence or expression. Based on the origin of these changes, cancer can be classified as sporadic, and hereditary or familial. Based on the cancer records in Peru, it is expected that 5 to 30% of all patients with cancer, i.e. about 2,000 to 12,000 people, have hereditary cancer, meaning that a similar number of families have a higher ri...

Objective. To assess aetiology of a POF in a 33-year-old woman and, if possible, plan a cure. Design. Case report. Setting. medical genetics diagnostic unit in a university hospital. Patient. A 33-year-old woman with premature ovarian failure (POF). Intervention(s). Genetic counseling, karyotyping, FISH study. Result(s). Turner-like diagnosis. Conclusion(s). Most cases of POF remain idiopathic....

Here we report one new case each of an X-autosome translocation (maternally derived), and an X-Y-chromosome translocation. Besides characterizing the involved breakpoints and/or imbalances in detail by molecular cyto-genetics, also skewed X-chromosome inactivation was determined on single cell level using 5-ethynyl-2-deoxyuridine (EdU). Thus, we confirmed that the recently suggested EdU approac...

The revolution in genetics in the past decades has enabled identification of many of the genes associated with human hereditary diseases, and hearing loss is no exception. These discoveries have a profound impact on knowledge about inner ear function and the pathology caused by mutations in these genes, which becomes clinically and socially relevant because a significant proportion of hearing l...

We present a coding scheme, based on a Bayesian Network (BN) formalism, for describing probabilistic and causal information in arguments in medical genetics. The scheme was applied to a corpus of genetic counseling letters and evaluated for intercoder reliability. Results show that the model is highly relevant to the corpus while intercoder reliability of the coding scheme is good. We plan to u...

Introduction The field of genetics is rapidly evolving, and as our knowledge of the application of genetic mutations to the field of heart disease expands, so does its role in the treatment and counseling of cardiac patients. This is particularly true in the case of cardiomyopathy, and in the tragic circumstance of sudden cardiac death. In this paper, we report a novel and previously unreported...

Sickle cell disease is one of the best characterized human monogenic disorders. Complex genotype/phenotype correlations clearly demonstrate the interaction of multiple genetic and environmental factors. In the last 20 years, scientific research has applied genetic approaches to dissect some of these modifiers. This review highlights the more recent genetic association studies that have been app...

Carrier screening, whether targeted or expanded, allows individuals to consider their range of reproductive options. Ultimately, the goal of genetic screening is to provide individuals with meaningful information that they can use to guide pregnancy planning based on their personal values. Ethnic-specific, panethnic, and expanded carrier screening are acceptable strategies for prepregnancy and ...

BACKGROUND It has become increasingly common to consider BRCA mutation status when determining optimal cancer risk management and treatment options in order to improve patient outcomes. Knowledge about the risk for hereditary cancer at or as close as possible to the time of diagnosis allows patients access to the most risk reduction options available. METHODS This paper illustrates the role o...