DISTRIBUTION OF DYSTROPHIN GENE DELETIONS MAPPED BY MULTIPLEX PCR IN THE MORAVIAN POPULATION

Twenty two Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients from the provinc e of Moravia, Czech Republic, were tested for the presence of dystroph in gene rearrangements using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) . Using primer pairs for amplification of two promoter regions and 27 exons, 11 patients were found positive for deletions spanning one or m ore exons. In all these cases, the deletions affected the distal part of the dystrophin gene, beginning from exon 44 but not reaching exon 6 0. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.