Analysis of Turner syndrome patients within the Jordanian population, with a focus on four patients with Y chromosome abnormalities.

This study presents findings in Turner syndrome (TS) patients from the Jordanian population, with focus on 4 patients with Y chromosomal abnormalities. From 1989 to 2011, 504 patients with TS stigmata were referred to our institute for karyotyping, resulting in 142 positive TS cases. Of these, 62 (43.7%) had the typical 45,X karyotype and the remaining individuals (56.3%) were found to be mosaics. Fifteen TS patients (10.5%) carried a structural abnormality of the Y chromosome and presented with the mosaic 45,X/46,XY karyotype. From these, 4 TS cases were investigated further. Karyotyping revealed that 1 patient carried a small supernumerary marker chromosome, whereas cytogenetic and molecular analyses showed that 3 patients carried 2 copies of the SRY gene. Further analysis by SRY sequencing revealed no mutations within the gene. The analyzed patients were found to be phenotypically either females or males, depending on the predominance of the cell line carrying the Y chromosome. This study demonstrates the importance of detailed cytogenetic analysis (such as FISH) in TS patients, and it also emphasizes the need for molecular analysis (such as PCR and sequencing) when fragments of the Y chromosome are present.