Responsible implementation of expanded carrier screening

Lidewij Henneman, Pascal Borry, Davit Chokoshvili, Martina C Cornel, Carla G van El, Francesca Forzano, Alison Hall, Heidi C Howard, Sandra Janssens, Hülya Kayserili, Phillis Lakeman, Anneke Lucassen, Sylvia A Metcalfe, Lovro Vidmar, Guido de Wert, Wybo J Dondorp and Borut Peterlin on behalf of the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG).European Journal of Human Genetics (2016) 24, e1–e12; doi:10.1038/ejhg.2015.271; published online 16 March 2016

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There are currently 1300 known recessive (autosomal and X-linked) diseases and about 100 of these have a prevalence of >1/100 000. Several important conditions, for example, Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy and Friedreich ataxia are not included in any of the commercial panels, presumably due to technological limitations of the microarray-based testing approach (eg, trinucleotide repeat mutations). We propose that, pending convincing evidence to the contrary, retaining a ‘serious congenital and childhood onset disorders’ scope is important in panel design.

 Responsible implementation of expanded carrier screening