A female infant with distal trisomy 17q is described. The anomaly resulted from a de novo inverted duplication of the 17q2405----q25.3 region as defined by high-resolution banding. The proband's overall clinical picture was in good agreement with those of previously reported cases of partial trisomy 17q. The phenotypic features relatively common to our and other reported cases, included mental and growth retardation, microcephaly, temporal retraction, blepharophimosis, saddle nose, thin upper lip, down-turned corner of the mouth, high-arched palate, low-set and deformed ears, webbed neck and lowered posterior hairline. A unique feature of the present case was systemic hirsutism.