Follow-up of 32 children with autosomal translocations found among 11,148 consecutively newborn children from 1969 to 1974.

A follow-up study of 32 unselected children with translocations has been made from 6 to 11 years after the chromosome examination of these children at birth. The physical and mental development of the five children with de novo translocations was very similar to that of the children with inherited translocations, and we found no indication of any association between the autosomal reciprocal translocations for the Robertsonian translocations and physical and mental development. There was an increased risk for offspring with unbalanced or aneuploid chromosome abnormalities in 2 of the 30 families, and prenatal examination is most probably indicated in carriers of any type of translocation. Further studies of large groups of unselected persons with translocations are, however, needed before any definite risk figures can be calculated for the different translocations.