Bells
01-01-07, 07:56 PM
I was quite suprised when I stumbled across this article.
There's a big change coming for pregnant women: Down syndrome testing no longer hinges on age 35.
This week, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists begins recommending that every pregnant woman, regardless of age, be offered a choice of tests for this common birth defect.
The main reason: Tests far less invasive than the long-used amniocentesis are now widely available, some that can tell in the first trimester the risk of a fetus having Down syndrome or other chromosomal defects.
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The original age-35 trigger was chosen years ago when doctors had less information about the risk of Down syndrome, and the only choice for prenatal detection was an amnio, using a needle to draw fluid from the amniotic sac, he said. Amnios are highly accurate but were reserved for women at higher risk of an affected pregnancy because they occasionally cause miscarriage. A study this fall put the miscarriage risk at one in 1,600 pregnancies, far lower than previous estimates.
Also today, women have more options. Doctors already frequently offer younger women blood tests that don't definitively diagnose Down syndrome such as an amnio or a similar invasive test called chorionic villus sampling -- but that can signal who's at higher risk.
The newest method, topping ACOG's recommendation for everyone, is a first-trimester screening that combines blood tests with a simple ultrasound exam, called a "nuchal translucency test" to measure the thickness of the back of the fetal neck.
Studies from England, where the nuchal translucency combo has been used for about a decade, and the U.S. conclude that screening method is more than 80 percent accurate, with a very small risk of falsely indicating Down syndrome in a healthy fetus. It is performed between 11 and 13 weeks into pregnancy, and women are usually given numerical odds of carrying an affected fetus.
A woman determined to be high risk then still has time for an invasive test to tell for sure.
Link (http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/01/01/down.syndrome.ap/index.html)
This technology was not available to all women in the US in the past and only available to women over the age of 35?:bugeye: Why? The technology has been around for quite a while and is non-invasive. It literally is just an ultrasound.
In Australia it is a standard test for all women in the first trimester and has been for a long long time. Actually in Australia you have to have a blood test in the week before you have the nuchal fold test to help give a better picture of the odds of having a child with down syndrome. It is just one of the many required and stardard tests pregnant women are required to have.
How is it that it is only now becoming available to all women in the US?
There's a big change coming for pregnant women: Down syndrome testing no longer hinges on age 35.
This week, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists begins recommending that every pregnant woman, regardless of age, be offered a choice of tests for this common birth defect.
The main reason: Tests far less invasive than the long-used amniocentesis are now widely available, some that can tell in the first trimester the risk of a fetus having Down syndrome or other chromosomal defects.
--------------------------------------------------------
The original age-35 trigger was chosen years ago when doctors had less information about the risk of Down syndrome, and the only choice for prenatal detection was an amnio, using a needle to draw fluid from the amniotic sac, he said. Amnios are highly accurate but were reserved for women at higher risk of an affected pregnancy because they occasionally cause miscarriage. A study this fall put the miscarriage risk at one in 1,600 pregnancies, far lower than previous estimates.
Also today, women have more options. Doctors already frequently offer younger women blood tests that don't definitively diagnose Down syndrome such as an amnio or a similar invasive test called chorionic villus sampling -- but that can signal who's at higher risk.
The newest method, topping ACOG's recommendation for everyone, is a first-trimester screening that combines blood tests with a simple ultrasound exam, called a "nuchal translucency test" to measure the thickness of the back of the fetal neck.
Studies from England, where the nuchal translucency combo has been used for about a decade, and the U.S. conclude that screening method is more than 80 percent accurate, with a very small risk of falsely indicating Down syndrome in a healthy fetus. It is performed between 11 and 13 weeks into pregnancy, and women are usually given numerical odds of carrying an affected fetus.
A woman determined to be high risk then still has time for an invasive test to tell for sure.
Link (http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/01/01/down.syndrome.ap/index.html)
This technology was not available to all women in the US in the past and only available to women over the age of 35?:bugeye: Why? The technology has been around for quite a while and is non-invasive. It literally is just an ultrasound.
In Australia it is a standard test for all women in the first trimester and has been for a long long time. Actually in Australia you have to have a blood test in the week before you have the nuchal fold test to help give a better picture of the odds of having a child with down syndrome. It is just one of the many required and stardard tests pregnant women are required to have.
How is it that it is only now becoming available to all women in the US?