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A family is described with three male sibs suffering from congenital adrenal hypoplasia (CAH). In the two surviving brothers the disease is clinically further characterized by a Duchenne type muscular dystrophy, growth failure and severe mental retardation. Laboratory investigations revealed deficient activities of gonadotrophin and glycerol kinase. The clinical, biochemical and genetic findings in ths exceptional family are reported and discussed.

Deafness, cataract, muscular atrophy, skeletal abnormalities, retardation of growth, underdeveloped secondary sexual characteristics, and electrocardiographic abnormalities are the features of a new, probably hereditary syndrome. Case reports are presented.

The clinical and cytogenetic data are presented of four children with Bloom's syndrome, who belong to two unrelated Dutch families. The patients showed, in varying degrees, the clinical features most characteristic of the syndrome: stunted growth; telangiectatic facial erythema; sun-sensitivity of the skin; and decreased immuno-competence. In one child the skin lesions were only minor and the diagnosis would probably not have been made if her sib had not been recognized as having Bloom's syndrome. The cytogenetic characteristics of the syndrome were present in all patients. Each showed a high number of chromosomal aberrations and numerous sister-chromatid exchanges per cell.

The offspring of a female with a reciprocal whole-arm translocation between a chromosome No. 10 and a chromosome No. 14 is described. She gave birth to three cytogenetically different children: one with a normal, one with an abnormal but balanced, and one with an unbalanced karyotype. In these three cases, 2:2 disjunctions must have occurred during maternal meiosis. She also had a trisomy 14 abortion, which is assumed to have been caused by a 3:1 meiotic disjunction.