Brief report: A case of autism with interstitial deletion of chromosome 13.

Doctors looked at one young man with autism.

They found a missing piece on his chromosome 13.

The report simply notes the deletion; no therapy was tested.

The missing stretch lay between 13q14 and 13q22.

No one had linked that exact spot to autism before.

Green et al. (1986) first said, "Check chromosomes in autism plus ID."

Richman et al. (2001) now adds 13q to the list of spots to watch.

Mazzone et al. (2012) extends the story: kids with 2q37 deletion can get better by school age.

Same cytogenetic idea, but very different outlook—one spot stays severe, another eases up.

If your client has autism and odd facial or hand features, ask the doctor about a chromosome test.

Finding 13q loss won’t change ABA targets today, yet it gives families a why and alerts them to eye or heart checks tied to that region.