Establishment of a prenatal diagnosis schedule as part of a prophylaxis program of factor XIII deficiency in the southeast of Iran.

Factor XIII deficiency (FXIIID) is an extremely rare bleeding disorder with a prevalence of 1 in 3 million in the general population. Compared to its global incidence, it has the greatest prevalence in Sistan and Baluchistan Province in the southeast of Iran. The high incidence of FXIIID in this region causes a high rate of morbidity and mortality among the affected individuals because of life-threatening episodes such as central nervous system (CNS) bleeding, umbilical cord bleeding, as well as miscarriage. CNS bleeding leads to a considerable number of neurological and behavioral complications. Therefore, we have designed an established prenatal diagnosis (PND) program to prevent the increasing incidence of life-threatening bleeding episodes and related complications among neonates with congenital FXIIID. This study was conducted from September 2013 to August 2014. A consent form was signed by the parents. Fetal sampling was done via abdominal chorionic villus sampling passage under local anesthesia and ultrasonic guidance within the first trimester of pregnancy. Fetal DNA was extracted, and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism was performed for the only reported mutation of FXIII (Trp187Arg) in the southeast of Iran. During the period of study, PND was performed on eight fetuses. Six fetuses were offspring of parental consanguineous marriages, and all of them had a positive family history of FXIIID. Seven out of the eight fetuses had a family member with CNS bleeding due to FXIIID. Four fetuses had a FXIIID-related death. One of the fetuses bore homozygous Trp187Arg mutation, whereas six were heterozygous, and one of the mothers gave birth to an unaffected fetus. To the best of our knowledge, PND is a possible solution to control high incidence of life-threatening episodes of FXIIID in southeast Iran.