Cytogenetic Analysis of 1508 Spontaneous Abortions Originating from South Slovakia

Knowledge with regard to the spontaneous abortion cytogenetics has been derived exclusively from populations of the highly developed countries; its full applicability to east-european populations living in the peculiar conditions of the former 'socialist countries' may be questioned. The consecutive series of 1912 spontaneous abortion products with identifiable embryonal tissue was collected in six maternal clinics in south Slovakia. 1508 specimens were set in culture. Among 926 (61.4%) successfully karyotyped abortions, 46.0% were chromosomally abnormal specimens. The proportion of the groups of abnormalities is similar to that in other large series, with the exception of a higher proportion of mosaics (14.3% of the abnormalities). The abnormality rate in the whole sample also lies within the range of values published. However, significant inter-regional variability has been established: the chromosome abnormality rate in the urban subsample is 47.8%, whereas the value was only 35.3% for rural southern districts. The anomaly rates are lower for all maternal ages and gestation phases in the country subsample. The possibility of the environmental diversity effect was discussed. No other major peculiarity of cytogenetic abortion characteristics can be determined in the population studied.