This study is a prospective clinical trial with fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) as a "routine" test for prenatal detection of the most common aneuploidies in high-risk pregnancies. Since April 1996, FISH studies with multicolor, commercially available, specific probes for chromosomes 13, 18, 21, X, and Y have been routinely performed in our cytogenetic laboratory on uncultured chorionic villous samplings (CVS), amniotic fluid samples, or fetal blood obtained by cordocentesis from patients with major or minor fetal anomalies detected by ultrasonography. Among the 4,193 prenatal samples analyzed between April 1996 and June 1998, routine FISH studies were ordered by the referring physicians on 301 (7.2%) cases. Aneuploidies were detected in 32 (10.6%) samples. Fourteen trisomy-21, 10 trisomy-18, 3 trisomy-13, 4 monosomies of X, and 1 case of triploidy were diagnosed by FISH. All 1,505 hybridizations were informative, and all 301 results were available and reported to the referring physicians in 24-48 hr. All relevant FISH results were confirmed by subsequent cytogenetic analysis. In 10 (3.8%) cases with normal FISH results, the final cytogenetic analysis revealed abnormal chromosomal rearrangements that could not be detected by the routine FISH studies. We conclude that rapid FISH analysis of interphase, uncultured fetal cells is an accurate and very sensitive method for routine prenatal diagnosis of the most common aneuploidies in high-risk pregnancies.