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Premature ovarian failure (POF) is a secondary hypergonadotrophic amenorrhoea affecting 1-3% of females, whose aetiology is almost unknown. However, inhibin alpha gene (INHalpha) has recently been indicated as candidate in POF pathogenesis.

Ovarian metastases from colorectal carcinoma frequently mimic primary ovarian carcinomas. The present study was performed to identify possible criteria helpful in differential diagnosis. Twenty-three ovarian metastases from colorectal carcinomas and 23 primary ovarian carcinomas were evaluated clinicopathologically and immunostained with antigastric M1 antigen, cathepsin E, CA125, vimentin, estrogen and progesterone receptors, cytokeratins 7 and 20, and alpha-inhibin antibodies. We performed a conventional and molecular cytogenetic study on 5 ovarian metastases from colorectal carcinoma using direct preparation, Q banding techniques, and fluorescence in situ hybridization. Integration of clinicopathologic, immunohistochemical, and cytogenetic features is helpful for the differential diagnosis of metastases of colorectal carcinomas from primary ovarian carcinomas. Bilaterality, extrapelvic spreading, high mitotic index, and cytokeratin 20 immunoreactivity, and lack of M1, CA125, and cytokeratin 7 immunoreactivity favor the diagnosis of ovarian metastases from colon carcinomas. The identification of 13q gain as a peculiar, sensitive, and specific marker of colorectal carcinomas seems relevant.

A marriage between two first cousins who have the same 2/7 balanced translocation is reported. The chromosome rearrangement was primarily detected in amniotic fluid cells cultured for prenatal chromosome analysis because of advanced maternal age. The translocation was also found in the couple's two normal children and in three other members of the family. The possible zygotic chromosome constitutions following 2:2 meiotic segregation in consanguineous parents with the same translocation are discussed.

A chromosome 13 with extra material on the short arm was observed in a 17-year-old boy showing defects in skeletal growth, an altered hormone profile and asthenoteratozoospermia, and in a 46 XX fetus subjected to prenatal diagnosis. The abnormal chromosome 13 had been transmitted from phenotypically normal parents who were the mother (case 1) and the father (case 2). The extra material on the abnormal chromosome 13 was brightly fluorescent after Q-banding, and positive in C-banding (CBG) and distamycin A-Dapi (DA-Dapi) banding. Staining of the nucleolus organizer region indicated its retention. In-situ hybridization of a Yq-specific repetitive DNA probe to chromosomal spreads from both cases demonstrated that the der(13) chromosome contains sequences of the Yq heterochromatic region. However, the apparently identical unbalanced (Y;13) translocation may either interfere (case 1) or not (father of case 2) with meiotic or postmeiotic sperm cell development.

This paper describes 18 months' experience of direct chromosome analysis applied to villi aspirated during the first trimester, using a catheter inserted trans-cervically. A total of 325 biopsy samples were analysed, and there was a diagnostic failure in 6 of these cases (1.8%). An abnormal karyotype was detected in 12 cases (3.8%); three of them were chromosome mosaics not confirmed on amniotic fluid cultures drawn between the 16th and 18th week of gestation. Cytogenetic control was performed on fetal tissues after voluntary abortion. There was a karyotype discrepancy between the placenta and the fetus in two cases out of the 12 mentioned above.

The development of prenatal diagnosis in Italy was made difficult by the restrictions of the old abortion law and only in recent years has a consistent number of cases been investigated. We report the experience on prenatal chromosome diagnosis of ten Italian centers participating in a collaborative study on 4952 diagnoses performed from 1972 to 1980. The main indication groups were: advanced maternal age (2882 cases), previous child with chromosome anomaly from parents with normal karyotype (847 cases), and chromosome anomaly in one parent (97 cases). The other indications for amniocentesis, including cases without a cytogenetic risk, have been assembled into a “miscellaneous” group (1126 cases). We found 125 abnormal fetal karyotypes (2.5%) of which 89 were unbalanced (1.8%). The frequencies and types of chromosome anomalies are reported in detail for each indication group and are compared with the corresponding ones from the European Munich Conference. The great majority of these Italian data were not included in the Munich report.

Intrauterine growth retardation and multiple malformations ascertained by echography allowed prenatal diagnosis of penta X syndrome at the 35th week of gestation. The proband's phenotype at birth was consistent with the antenatal observations and the clinical phenotype described in previous patients. The main clinical features were somatic hypodevelopment as compared to gestational age, craniofacial anomalies, congenital heart defects, and agenesia of the right kidney and ureter. Analysis of X-linked RFLPs in the parents and the proband allowed the maternal origin of the three extra X chromosomes to be established, suggesting consecutive nondisjunction events: one in meiosis I and the second, involving both X chromosomes, in meiosis II. Neither maternal age nor familial recurrence of chromosomal aneuploidies was a predisposing cause for the sequential nondisjunction in this case.