Abstract
The incidence of congenital anomalies and/or genetic disorders in the Omani population has reached figures greater than double the global statistics. Preference for consanguineous unions together with the fact that termination of pregnancy in Muslim communities are largely avoided, have been highlighted as contributing factors. This overview identifies a third significant aspect contributing to the elevated rate of genetic disorders in the Omani population. Namely, a lack of services that are able to offer termination of pregnancy for severe congenital anomalies, to requesting parents. In this report we select an unusual case of a family at risk for two distinct genetic disorders - 6q micro-deletion and unbalanced products of conception attributed to a balanced parental translocation involving chromosome 3 and 13, to portray and examine the current situation faced by Omani couples interested in prenatal diagnosis for termination of pregnancy. Additional challenges and pitfalls to developing a prenatal diagnostic service as part of the genetic service in Oman are discussed.
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Acknowledgments
We are very grateful to the participating family for their co-operation and willingness to share their experiences that shaped this study. The patient has been submitted to DECIPHER (http://decipher.sanger.ac.uk/).
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Zandrè Bruwer, Udayakumar Achandira, Khalsa Al Kharousi, Adila Al-Kindy declare they have no conflict of interest.
Human Studies and Informed Consent
All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.
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Bruwer, Z., Achandira, U., Al Kharousi, K. et al. Existing Challenges Associated with Offering Prenatal Genetic Diagnosis in an Arab Society in the Sultanate of Oman. J Genet Counsel 23, 928–932 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-014-9764-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-014-9764-x