Further to the editorial titled above, I am disappointed the authors (Morris and Jewell) made no effort to contact diagnostic referral centres directly and accurately determine the current level of service provision of microarray technology within New Zealand prior to publication.

The Cyto-Molecular Genetic Services Laboratory, Wellington Hospital, implemented aCGH in mid 2008, gaining IANZ accreditation in May 2009 and we wish to acknowledge the support of Agilent Technologies and Pacific Laboratory Products Ltd during the validation phase and Capital and Coast District Health Board’s vision in investing in microarray technology.

Service promotion has been widespread and demand is rapidly increasing. Diagnostic testing commenced in May 2009 and is currently available to tertiary specialists including paediatric services in consultation with Clinical Genetics. This technology is increasingly cost effective, and has largely replaced the stepwise targeted approach of multiple genetic tests in patients with unclear aetiologies.

If readers would like to learn more about our aCGH services, please contact genetic.services@ccdhb.org.nz

We are pleased that the Wellington laboratory believes that it is now offering a full service. This is a significant achievement for the timeframe, and considering assay complexity, necessary assessment of an expanding choice of commercially available array platforms, requirement for independent validation of assay results and not least, proper evaluation of their diagnostic impact. We were led to believe otherwise about the extent of the Wellington service by their array CGH representative who spoke at the Asia Pacific Human Genetics User Summit (May 13, 2010), which unfortunately Mr Felix was unable to attend.