What the risks are:

The risks are related to the procedure used to obtain the specimen.

See:

• Amniocentesis
• Bone marrow biopsy
• Chorionic villus sampling
• Venipuncture

In some cases, an abnormality may occur as the cells as growing in the lab dish. Karyotype tests should be repeated to confirm that an abnormal chromosome problem is actually in the body of the patient.

Special considerations:

Chemotherapy may cause chromosome breaks that affect normal karotyping results.

See also: Mosaicism

Your doctor may also order other tests that go together with a karyotype:

• Telomere studies -- look at the ends of the chromosomes
• Microarray -- looks at small changes in the chromosomes
• Fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) -- looks for small mistakes such as deletions in the chromosomes