Fluorescent in-situ hybridization--some of its applications in clinical cytogenetics

Fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) is becoming more and more relevant as an important future tool in prenatal and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and cancer cytogenetics. This review describes the FISH technique as applied to whole chromosome spreads and interphase cells and discusses its applications in clinical cytogenetics. Information is presented on the various types of probes and the subsequent hybridization and detection procedures. The potential use of this novel FISH technique in the diagnosis of numerical and structural chromosomal aberrations in routine karyotyping for prenatal diagnosis, tumour cytogenetics and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis is outlined.