Case Report: a novel chromosomal insertion, 46, XY, inv ins(18;2)(q11.2;q13q22), in a patient with infertility and mild intellectual disability

Infertility is an important health problem affecting 15% of couples worldwide. Intellectual disability (ID) is characterized with significant impairment of intellectual function, adaptive daily life skills and social skills. Insertion is a rare chromosomal rearrangement causing infertility and ID. Here, we report a 39-year-old man presenting with primary infertility and mild ID. The patient’s spermiogram was consistent with azoospermia. Conventional cytogenetic analysis showed a novel inversion/insertion type of chromosomal aberration involving chromosomes 18 and 2: 46, XY, inv ins(18;2)(q11.2;q13q22). We carried out the array comparative genomic hybridization analysis to confirm the cytogenetic findings. Y micro-deletion analysis demonstrated that the AZF region as intact. We suggest that the novel insertion found in this case [46, XY, inv ins(18;2)(q11.2;q13q22)] may have caused infertility and mild ID in our patient. To the best of our knowledge, this chromosomal insertion has not previously been reported.