Authors: Lawrence Copelovitch Bernard S Kaplan
Publish Date: 2006/02/21
Volume: 21, Issue: 4, Pages: 455-456
Abstract
It was with great interest that we read the article by Slajpah et al 1 entitled The importance of noninvasive genetic analysis in the initial diagnosis of Alport syndrome in young patients Genetic technology now provides us with the ability to diagnose diseases that are not only presymptomatic but become clinically important only in adulthood Some of these lateonset diseases with a high degree of predictability based on genetic tests include myotonic dystrophy hemochromatosis autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease PKD Alport syndrome Huntington disease and some cancer syndromes including breast cancer 2 Unfortunately our ability to make early genetic diagnoses in these disorders is far ahead of our capability to effectively slow down or halt their progression let alone offer any prospect for a cure With this in mind we suggest that presymptomatic genetic testing of children with
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