A review with 9 references on the current status of automated chromosome anal., looking at both established and exciting emerging techniques.Chromosome anal. is primarily performed as part of a genetic service, for the identification of congenital disorders, prenatal abnormalities, and for cancer diagnosis and research.The advent of automated chromosome anal. has drastically changed the capabilities of the cytogenetics and mol. genetics laboratoryThese changes range from simple time-saving from laborious tasks such as manual karyotyping, to the implementation of the new, exciting, automation-dependent techniques that have evolved in the last decade, such as automated metaphase scanning, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH), comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) and multicolor FISH.