[Value of chorionic biopsy in routine clinical diagnosis]

To test the advantages and risks of chorionic villi sampling, a method still new in prenatal diagnosis, 100 patients were examined. Most of the biopsies were taken in the 8th week of pregnancy. A soft catheter with a flexible mandrin was introduced transcervically to the chorion frondosum guided by ultrasound. The mandrin was then removed and trophoblastic tissue obtained by aspiration. The risk of abortion within 10-14 days after biopsy could be reduced to 4%. In the last series of chorionic villi samplings 92% of these could be evaluated cytogenetically. The use of quinacrine fluorescence technique showed that female mitoses were never found in male tissue. Because of the relatively low risk of abortion and the high diagnostic accuracy achieved in a very short period of time chorionic villi sampling can be considered as an alternative to amniocentesis.