Prenatal diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy: Indian scenario.

OBJECTIVE

To study the psychosocial issues associated with prenatal diagnosis of SMA in India and the use of SMN1 copy number analysis for carrier detection prior to offering prenatal diagnosis.

METHODS

Homozygous deletion of SMN1 gene was done by PCR-RFLP. Copy number analysis of SMN1 gene was performed by quantitative PCR.

RESULTS

We report our experience of eight cases of prenatal diagnosis for SMA and the use of carrier detection prior to offering prenatal diagnosis. Quantitative PCR results show that SMN1 copy number analysis is useful to identify couples at risk.

CONCLUSIONS

Case analyses depict unique psychosocial issues associated with prenatal diagnosis of SMA from India.