Paracentric inversion in the short arm of chromosome 1. Report of a family and review of the literature.

In general, carriers of paracentric inversions are phenotypically normal, although individual reports describe like occurrence of infertility, miscarriages and mental retardation in inversion carriers. We present a family with paracentric inversion of 1p [karyotype: 46,XY/XY, inv(1)(p13.2p36.2)] in 7 of the 12 investigated family members. The index patient, a four year-old boy was referred for motor and mental retardation. The possible relationship between the paracentric inversion and the MR/MCA syndrome in the index patient of this family is briefly discussed.