title: Recurrent Trisomies: Chance or Inherited Predisposition?
abstract: Two patients experiencing recurring trisomic pregnancies involving a different chromosome each time are presented. Mechanisms to explain recurrent trisomies include a gene or genes predisposing to nondisjunction in general or to nondisjunction of the acrocentric chromosomes, maternal age effects, and germ-line mosaicism. Genetic counseling is complicated by the lack of a clear explanation for the recurrences, difficulty in quoting a specific recurrence risk, concern regarding the risk for uniparental disomy, and the frustration, grief and guilt reactions of the patients.
authors.affiliation: Presbyterian Laboratory Services, Presbyterian Healthcare System, Charlotte, NC. Janet E. Ulm, Perinatal Diagnostic Center, Charlotte, NC, 28204, jeu1@phsc.com.
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Ulm