ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To assess the application value in prenatal diagnosis using karyotype analysis combined with BACs-on-Beads (BoBs) assay.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Nine hundred sixty five pregnant women were subjected to amniocentesis, chromosomal karyotype analysis and detection of BoBs were employed simultaneously for abnormal number of chromosomes and 9 chromosome microdeletion syndrome in prenatal diagnosis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Fifty cases common chromosome aneupoidies were successfully detected by both karyotype analysis and BoBs which included 31 cases of trisomy 21,10 cases of trisomy 18 and 9 cases with sex chromosome abnormality. BoBs in addition detected 1 case of DiGeorge-1 microdeletion syndrome and 1 case of 7q11.23 microduplication syndrome. All 9 fetuses with chromosome abnormalities detected by karyotyping were missed by BoBs, including 2 cases of marker chromosomes,4 cases of chromosomal translocation,1 case of chromosomal inversion, 2 cases of Sex chromosome mosaicism; 2 cases of fetal inherited from the parents,7 cases for novel mutations.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Karyotype analysis combined with BoBs dedtection is a rapid, effective and highly accurate prenatal diagnosis model that may should be widely used in clinical diagnosis.</p>