A new case of an interstitial deletion (4)(q25q27) characterised by molecular cytogenetic techniques and review of the literature.

Interstitial deletions of the long arm of chromosome 4 involving the region 4q25-q27 are rare. Clinical features of patients carrying such a deletion include craniofacial and skeletal anomalies, malformations of the eye, cardiac abnormalities, congenital hypotonia, and developmental retardation. Here we report a new case of a de novo interstitial deletion 4(q25q27) in a girl with congenital malformations and findings of Rieger syndrome. The abnormal chromosome 4 was characterised by G-banding and molecular cytogenetic methods including comparative genomic hybridisation and two-colour fluorescent in situ hybridisation with band-specific probes.

Conclusions: this report highlights the importance of high quality banding and fluorescent in situ hybridisation analyses to screen for subtle chromosome 4q25-q27 aberrations in patients with clinical features of Rieger syndrome.