Accompanying Maternal blood is required
Rapid Interphase FISH: 2 working days
Metaphase FISH: 14 - 21 days, as cells have be cultured to produce metaphase chromosomes
FISH is a technique in which fluorescently labelled DNA probes are hybridised to target DNA on a slide. Interphase and/or metaphase cells are routinely analysed.
The number and quality of cells examined are based on the NPAAC guidelines, unless otherwise stated.
Limitations: FISH findings should never be used in isolation to establish a diagnosis. Any signal detected below laboratory threshold is not reported. FISH studies target specific chromosome sequences, therefore the probes used in this study will only detect abnormalities at the loci specified.
Please note: QF-PCR has replaced routine FISH Aneuscreen. Please refer to the Prenatal rapid aneuploidy page for more details
FISH is used for the detection of specific chromosome changes, some of which may be undetectable or difficult to characterise by conventional cytogenetic methods. In a prenatal setting FISH can be used for rapid 22q11 deletion detection, or characterisation of some familial rearrangements.
FISH can also be used on metaphase chromosomes to identify cryptic chromosome rearrangements.
FISH will not detect copy number variants outside the regions of the probes used, and will not detect other genetic alterations.
To contact the Cytogenetics team:
| Auckland City Hospital | (09) 307 4949 |
| Lablink | ext 22000 |
| Diagnostic Genetics General Enquiries | ext 22008 |
| Cytogenetics Office | ext 22012 |
Specimens to be kept at room temperature (>8 degrees Celsius to <24 degrees Celsius) and sent to LabPlus urgently. Samples must arrive in the laboratory on the day of the procedure or the following day.