Trisomy 13 - Patau syndrome
What is Trisomy 13?
Trisomy 13, also called Patau syndrome is a chromosomal disorder where there are three copies of chromosome 13 and can cause severe neurological
and heart defects; approximately 80% of children born with this defect die shortly after birth.
Infants born with trisomy 13 often have several of the following conditions: heart defects, kidney defects, neurological problems, microcephaly
(small head), holoprosencephaly (failure of the brain to divide into halves during development), severe mental deficiency, polydactylism (extra
fingers or toes), deformed feet (rocker-bottom feet), microphthalmia (small eyes), malformed nose, and cleft lip and/or cleft palate. Due to the
existence of many of these life-threatening medical defects many infants with trisomy 13 die within their first days or weeks of life.
For more information on this disorder please visit:
eMedicine WebMD
Genetic Home Referrence U.S. National Library of Medicine
iHealth Healthcare Information Directory
MedlinePlus A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine from the National Institutes of Health