© 2016
By Keith S. Wexler, MBA, Maternal Fetal Medicine, Prenatal Diagnosis and Biotech/Life Sciences Consultant, GENASSIST, Inc.
Paul Wexler, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., Medical Director, GENASSIST, Inc.
Clinical Professor, Department of OB/GYN, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Clinical Professor, Division of Genetics/Dept. of Pediatrics, Univ. of Colorado/The Children’s Hospital
Mucolipidosis Type IV is an Ashkenazi Jewish inherited disease with a carrier frequency of (1 in 122) and affects
(1 in 59,000) pregnancies.
Mucolipidosis Type IV: Autosomal recessive inheritance (25% if both parents are gene carriers) has been described.
Mucolipidosis Type IV is usually present in infancy with visual impairment and developmental delay with variable progression. Cerebral palsy-like findings often delay diagnosis.
*The Ashkenazi Jewish Screen is available in a variety of Panels:
- Basic Panel – 3 Diseases
- Expanded Panel – 8 Diseases
- *Full Panel – 18 Diseases – (One company is running a 3 part Ashkenazi panel that has up to 39 diseases)
*The Full Panel is now also part of many Microarray Panels that can test for over 100 diseases.
The Jewish population is the United States as of 2012 was 6,543,820 making up 2.1% of the entire U.S. population (1).
The Ashkenazi Jewish Inherited Disease Panel was created to help screen for specific ethnic inherited diseases. Preconceptional testing is suggested to help identify or rule-out the parents as being carriers.
(1) US Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2012
