Research Progress of Array Comparative Genomic Hybridization on Prenatal Diagnosis

Chromosome abnormality is the fundamental reason of fetal growth retardation, malformation, stillbirth and other genetic syndromes.Prenatal diagnosis is committed to find and prevent these genetic diseases as early as possible and to improve the quality of the population. Chromosome G-banding karyotype analysis technology is the gold standard for chromosome disease diagnosis and prenatal diagnosis. But in order to overcome it's disadvantages such as time-consuming and low resolution, array comparative genomic hybridization (ACGH) technology emerge as the times require. In terms of speed, the degree of automation, coverage and resolution, ACGH is improved to a great extent compared to the conventional cytogenetic analysis. In this article, we are going to discuss the advantages, disadvantages and prospects of ACGH in prenatal diagnosis. Key words: Prenatal diagnosis; Microarray analysis; Comparative genomic hybridization