Prenatal detection of copy number variants in fetuses with detected congenital devolpmental disordes, from 2015 to 2020 by Multiplex Ligation-Dependent Probe Amplification and microarray analysis

Abstract

Objective: Analysis of prenatal samples from 2015 to 2020. Comparison detection rates of clinically relevant variants by cytogenetic karyotype analysis and cytogenomic MLPA (Multiplex Ligation-Depent Probe Amplification) and microarray methods (CMA – chromosomal microarray). Material and method: 1,029 prenatal samples were analyzed by cytogenetic karyotyping (N = 1,029), cytogenomic methods – MLPA (N = 144) and CMA (N = 111). All unbalanced changes were confirmed by MLPA or CMA. Results: From the analyzed set of fetuses, after subtraction of aneuploidies – 107 (10.40%, N = 1,029), 22 structural aberrations (2.39%, N = 922) – nine unbalanced changes (0.98%), 10 balanced changes (1.08%), one case of unclear mosaicism (0.09%), one case of presence of a marker chromosome (0.09%) and one case of sex discordance (0.09%) – were detected by karyotype analysis. A total of eight (7.21%, N = 111) pathological variants were detected by CMA in 255 samples with physiological karyotype indicated for cytogenomic examination. Five (3.47%, N = 144) of eight pathogenic variants were detected by MLPA method. The total capture of pathogenic variants by MLPA and CMA methods was 14 (5.14%) and 17 (6.25%) (N = 272), including confirmatory pathological karyotype testing. Detection of pathological variants in the isolated disorders group was lower than in the multiple disorders group (5.08 vs. 21.42%). Conclusion: A higher success rate for the detection of pathological copy number variation variants by the microarray method than by the MLPA method was confirmed. Key word: congenital developmental disorders – CMA – MLPA – copy number variants