In order to develop an optimal strategy for the prenatal diagnosis of steroid 21-hydroxylase (EC 1.14.99.10) deficiency, we investigated 16 affected families with salt wasting syndrome. Genomic DNA derived from peripheral white blood cells was digested with 6 different restriction enzymes. Hybridisation was carried out with DNA-probes of the HLA class I region, the 21-hydroxylase- and the complement C4 genes. All the families were informative in at least three different loci. Twelve out of the 16 families were informative by neutral polymorphisms or disease related variants of the 21-hydroxylase gene or the adjoining C4 locus. The reliability of prediction in these cases exceeded 99%. The remaining 4 families were informative only in the HLA class I region, tantamount to a reliability of prediction of about 98%. In none of the cases did we have to fall back on semiquantitative gene dose assessments. We further describe new polymorphisms in the 21-hydroxylase region for the enzyme Pvu II and EcoR V.