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Maternal serum markers. Estimation of the risk of Down's syndrome: a prospective study

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International Journal of Clinical and Laboratory Research

Summary

The risk of Down's syndrome pregnancies can be estimated by quantitation of maternal serum markers, namely α-fetoprotein, unconjugated estriol and human chorionic gonadotropin (triple test). A prospective study of 2892 pregnant women (median age 33.5 years) is reported. The detection rate of Down's syndrome pregnancies was 80% (confidence intervals 45%–100%) when a risk of 1∶380 or greater was considered “screen positive”; the false positive rate was 13.3% (confidence intervals 12.0%–14.5%). The importance of the accurate assessment of gestational age and the time of blood sampling are emphasized. Our findings are compared with similar studies performed in other laboratories.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ente Ospedaliero Sant'Anna, USL IX, Turin, Italy

    Giuliana Mancini, Marco Perona, Daniela Dall'Amico, Carla Bollati, Fulvia Albano, Raffaela Mazzone & Maria Rosso

  2. Dipartimento di Genetica, Biologia e Chimica Medica, Centro CNR CII/CIOS, Università di Torino, Via Santena, 19, I-10126, Turin, Italy

    Enrico Grosso, Nicola Migone & Angelo Carbonara

  3. USL VIII, Servizio Universitario Convenzionato di Genetica Medica, Turin, Italy

    Franco Fiocchi

Authors
  1. Giuliana Mancini
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  2. Marco Perona
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  3. Daniela Dall'Amico
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  4. Carla Bollati
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  5. Fulvia Albano
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  6. Raffaela Mazzone
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  7. Maria Rosso
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  8. Enrico Grosso
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  9. Nicola Migone
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  10. Franco Fiocchi
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  11. Angelo Carbonara
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Mancini, G., Perona, M., Dall'Amico, D. et al. Maternal serum markers. Estimation of the risk of Down's syndrome: a prospective study. Int J Clin Lab Res 24, 49–53 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02592410

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02592410

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