Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Down's syndrome: current screening techniques.

R S White1

  • 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, DC.

Southern Medical Journal
|December 1, 1989
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

In response to discrimination, racism, and bias in childbirth pain management in the United States: a scoping review and directions for research and clinical care.

International journal of obstetric anesthesia·2025
Same author

Racial health disparities in severe maternal morbidity before and after implementation of an enhanced recovery after cesarean delivery protocol: a retrospective observational study at two New York City hospitals (2016-2020).

International journal of obstetric anesthesia·2025
Same author

Patients' perspectives on pain relief during childbirth and labor epidurals: a pilot qualitative study among women who chose to deliver without neuraxial labor analgesia.

International journal of obstetric anesthesia·2024
Same author

Environmental sustainability in obstetric anesthesia.

International journal of obstetric anesthesia·2024
Same author

Disparities in postpartum readmission by patient- and hospital-level social risk factors in the United States: a retrospective multistate analysis, 2015-2020.

International journal of obstetric anesthesia·2024
Same author

Obstetric anesthesiology and extended reality: an introduction to future uses of spatial computing in obstetric anesthesiology.

International journal of obstetric anesthesia·2023
Same journal

The Five Essential Concepts of Developmental Medicine: A Medical Paradigm for People with Developmental Disabilities.

Southern medical journal·2026
Same journal

α-Gal Syndrome in the South: Why We Need Treatment Trials, Not Just Tick Prevention.

Southern medical journal·2026
Same journal

Association between Main Pancreatic Duct Size, Comorbidities, and Fistula Formation after Whipple Procedure for Pancreatic Cancer.

Southern medical journal·2026
Same journal

Impact of Temperature Variation on Patients with Acute Severe Asthma.

Southern medical journal·2026
Same journal

Assessing the Accuracy and Reliability of ChatGPT-4 to Answer Clinical EHR Messages in Sports Medicine.

Southern medical journal·2026
Same journal

Diagnostic Utility and Clinical Implications of Inpatient Fecal Occult Blood Testing.

Southern medical journal·2026
See all related articles

Maternal age and serum markers improve Down syndrome screening. Adding alpha-fetoprotein to maternal age increases detection rates and reduces false positives for Down syndrome pregnancies.

Area of Science:

  • Obstetrics and Gynecology
  • Medical Genetics
  • Prenatal Diagnostics

Background:

  • Traditional Down syndrome screening relied on maternal age (≥35 years) and amniocentesis.
  • This method detected only 20% of Down syndrome cases with a 4.3% false-positive rate.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the effectiveness of incorporating additional serum markers into antenatal screening for Down syndrome.
  • To improve detection rates and reduce false positives in prenatal diagnosis.

Main Methods:

  • Utilizing maternal age as a baseline screening parameter.
  • Incorporating maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) levels.
  • Exploring the use of unconjugated estriol and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) as additional markers.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Combining maternal age with AFP increased Down syndrome detection to 28%.
  • This combined approach reduced false-positive results by 35%.
  • Further markers (unconjugated estriol, hCG) show potential to detect >65% of chromosomal abnormalities without increasing false positives.

Conclusions:

  • Maternal serum AFP significantly enhances Down syndrome screening accuracy when combined with maternal age.
  • Future screening protocols incorporating multiple serum markers promise higher detection rates for fetal chromosomal abnormalities.