A research project with the financial assistance of scientific committee of Shanghai municipality, " the feasibility of serum screening of Down's syndrome during the second trimester of gestation" was completed recently. Professor Yu Kaiming of the first maternity and infancy health care Institute, and chief of prenatal diagnosis center of Shanghai municipality appealed that "every pregnant woman, no matter with an age range of over 35 or with other high risky factors, must undergo the prenatal abnormality screening test in order to eliminate the birth of an infant with Down's syndrome, for the improvement of diathesis of the population born in our country.

    The researchers of the Shanghai first maternity and infant care institute and the Shanghai Prenatal Diagnosis Center with professors Wang Defeng and Yu Kaiming headed the list of signers, carried out serum AFP and bchorionic-gonadotropin (b-hCG) screening test for 5742 cases of 14-20 weeks of healthy mono foetus gravida since March 1999 to March 2001, (404 cases of over 35 years of age and 5338 cases of less than 35 years of age). The results revealed that in the pregnant women suspected of conceiving a fetus with Down's syndrome the serum AFP level was lower than the normal gravida of the same period and the b-hCG was higher; a total of 517 cases were considered to have high risk of Down's syndrome pregnancy, giving a positive rate of screening of 9 %. If the positive screening rates were grouped according to the age ranges, the positive rate was 6 % in those less 35 years of age and in the group of more than 35 years the positive rate was as high as 44 %. For the 517 cases of high risk gravida chromosome karyotype tests of amniotic fluid was carried out in 144 cases, and 5 cases of Down's syndrome were detected; one case had anomaly of chromosome pair 18th and 2 cases had anomaly of sex chromosome.

    According to these findings, professor Yu pointed out that in the past antepartum Down's syndrome screening was only carried out as a routine for the pregnant women of more than 35 years of age with high risk factors; it was an undertaking with careless omission. The present study showed that the two tests of AFP and b-hCG screening should be performed for every pregnant woman during the second trimester of gestation. (查看原文)

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