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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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