A prospective trial of prenatal screening for Down syndrome by means of maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein, human chorionic gonadotropin, and unconjugated estriol

What Was Tested

This clinical trial paper looks at hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) in the context of alpha-gal syndrome.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 7492 women were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as teenagers, adults and middle-aged adults, women only.

Alpha-Fetoprotein, human chorionic gonadotropin, and unconjugated estriol were measured in 8233 midtrimester serum samples, including 7492 from women < 35 years old and 741 from women > or = 35 years old.

Further testing was recommended for patients with a risk > or = 1:270.

How the Study Was Run

Down syndrome risks were computed by means of age and all three markers.

Testing for trisomy 18 was recommended for patients with an alpha-fetoprotein < or = 0.70 multiples of the median, human chorionic gonadotropin < or = 0.50 multiples of the median, and unconjugated estriol < or = 0.55 multiples of the median.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Amniocentesis, Biomarkers, Chorionic Gonadotropin, Chromosomes, Human, Pair 18, Down Syndrome, Estriol and Fetal Diseases.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a clinical trial of hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) in 7492 women in people with alpha-gal syndrome.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 1993 (American journal of obstetrics and gynecology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) compound page, Alpha-gal syndrome research.