A screening program for trisomy 21 at 10-14 weeks using fetal nuchal translucency, maternal serum free beta-human chorionic gonadotropin and pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A

What Was Tested

This controlled clinical trial paper looks at hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin).

To examine the potential impact of combining maternal age with fetal nuchal translucency thickness and maternal serum free beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (beta-hCG) and pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) in screening for trisomy 21 at 10-14 weeks of gestation.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, adults and middle-aged adults, women only.

How the Study Was Run

Maternal serum free beta-hCG and PAPP-A were measured by Kryptor, a random access immunoassay analyzer using time-resolved amplified cryptate emission, in 210 singleton pregnancies with trisomy 21 and 946 chromosomally normal controls, matched for maternal age, gestation and sample storage time.

In all cases the fetal crown-rump length and nuchal translucency thickness had been measured by ultrasonography at 10-14 weeks of gestation and maternal blood had been obtained at the time of the scan.

The distributions (in multiples of the median; MoM) of free beta-hCG and PAPP-A (corrected for maternal weight) and fetal nuchal translucency (NT) were determined in the trisomy 21 group and the controls.

Likelihood ratios for the various marker combinations were calculated and these were used together with the age-related risk for trisomy 21 in the first trimester to calculate the expected detection rate of affected pregnancies, at a fixed false-positive rate, in a population with the maternal age distribution of pregnancies in England and Wales.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Chorionic Gonadotropin, beta Subunit, Human, Down Syndrome, False Positive Reactions, Fetal Diseases, Gestational Age, Linear Models and Mass Screening.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a controlled clinical trial of hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin).

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 1999 (Ultrasound in obstetrics & gynecology : the official journal of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology), a journal based in England.

More context: the hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) compound page, all human trials.