Authors:
Maymon R. Dreazen E. Weinraub Z. Bukovsky I. Herman A.
Title:
Antenatal screening for Down Syndrome in assisted reproductive pregnancies.
Source:
Human Reproduction Update. Vol 5(5) (pp30-534), 1999.
Abstract:
The wide use of assisted conception methods has risen dramatically. The greater proportion of singletons, twins and high order of multiplicity conceived by those methods have already focused the medical community to various obstetric complications. Recently, there have been suggestions that the levels of mid-gestation serum markers, particularly human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG), might be affected by assisted conception, leading to higher false-positive results. Furthermore, women who conceived after assisted reproduction methods are on average older, and in many cases their current pregnancy was achieved after long-standing infertility and might even be their last one. This is why they are extremely wary of any invasive fetal karyotyping. Therefore, every effort should be made to provide them with the most accurate screening of Down Syndrome (DS) risk. In this respect, nuchal translucency (NT) measurement, which has been reported to be another effective screening method, might be a more reliable marker in these pregnancies. This review explores the problematic issue of antenatal DS screening in assisted conception pregnancies. For the singletons and twins, a se quential NT and second-trimester serum marker screening can be offered, thus producing a single risk estimation which seems to be more accurate. For the high order of multiplicity, the NT offers additional important data, which can be taken in consideration both as a screening tool for DS and if fetal reduction is planned.
Please click on the required question.
- 1 What does the term abortion mean?
- 2 What are the legal criteria that permit doctors to terminate a pregnancy in the UK?
- 3 How could we tell if there is a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped - e.g. Down Syndrome?
- 3A What is Tay Sachs and should we test for it?
- 4 How prevalent is pregnancy termination?
- 5 Why do unwanted pregnancies occur?
- 6 I think I may be pregnant and I do not want to have a baby now. What should I do?
- 7 Should I terminate my pregnancy for social reasons?
- 8 How can my pregnancy be terminated?
- 9 What does a suction (surgical) termination of pregnancy involve?
- 10 What is a medical abortion?
- 11 What will happen to me if I have a medical abortion?
- 12 How do medical and surgical pregnancy termination compare?
- 13 What are the chances of medical termination failing?
- 14 What are the risks of pregnancy termination?
- 15 Why is there debate about the ethics of pregnancy termination?
- 16 Support Groups.
- 17 Where can I obtain more information?
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