Introduction:

Medical genetics is basically about the medicine involving the diagnosis and administration of hereditary disorders (is an illness caused by abnormalities in genes or chromosomes). This field is totally different from human genetics (describes the study of inheritance as it occurs in human beings). The difference lies between two fields is that human genetics is basically scientific field of research that may or may not practice in the field of medicine, but when we talk about medical genetics it totally refers to the use of genetics (is the subdivision of biology that studies heredity and variation in organisms or the genetic makeup of a particular individual, organism or species) to medical care.

For example, research work that has been applied on the causes and inheritance of genetic disorders would be deliberated within both medical genetics and human genetics but the individuals that have been practiced for management, diagnosis, and counseling with genetic disorders would be painstaking part of medical genetics. Moreover, if we talk about non-medical phenotypes (is any observable characteristic or trait of an organism: such as its morphology, development, biochemical or physiological properties, behavior, and products of behavior (such as a bird's nest)) like genetics of eye color or hair color this would be referred as a part of human genetics not as a part of medical genetics.

A new term is used for medical genetics called "Genetic Medicine" this term integrates different areas such as;

• Gene therapy (is a technique in which a gene that is responsible for disease development is replaced with a healthy gene, in other words defective gene is corrected).

• Personalized medicine (is a medical exemplary highlighting in general the customization of health-care, with all decisions and observes being tailored to individual patients in whatever ways probable).

• Predictive medicine (is a hurriedly developing field of medicine that involves predicting disease and instituting preventive procedures in order to either preclude the disease all in all or significantly decrease its influence upon the patient (such as by preventing mortality or limiting morbidity))

Scope of Medical Genetics:

Medical genetics has its numerous applications in different areas of research including genetic counselors, clinical training of physicians, clinical diagnostic actions, and nutritionist into the roots and inheritance of genetic disorder. There are various examples that descend within the scope of medical genetics, these examples include;

• Birth defects (congenital abnormality or a defect existing at birth)
• Dysmorphology
• Mental retardation (is a generalized disorder appearing before adulthood, characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in two or more adaptive behaviors)
• Autism (is a neural development disorder characterized by afflicted communication and social interaction)
• Metabolic disorders
• Mitochondrial disorders
• Skeletal dysplasia
• Connective tissue disorders (is any disease that has the connective tissues of the body as a target of pathology)
• Cancer genetics
• Teratogens (is the study of abnormalities of physiological development)
• Prenatal diagnosis or prenatal screening (is testing for diseases or conditions in a fetus or embryo before it is born)

Medical genetics is progressively becoming applicable to many common diseases. Recent advances has done in genetics that reveals cause of the disease such as, endocrine, neurologic, renal, pulmonary, dermatologic, cardiovascular, psychiatric, and ophthalmologic conditions.

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