Prenatal diagnosis of hematologic diseases, 1986 update

Prenatal diagnosis has been performed in more than 11,000 fetuses at risk for hematologic diseases. This paper summarizes the data from 30 centers from 1974 to 1985: 70% had fetal blood taken for hemoglobinopathies, of which 93% were for thalassemia and 7% for sickle disorders; 13% had DNA analyses for hemoglobinopathies, 54% for thalassemia and 46% for sickle disorders; 17% were investigated for other hematologic diseases using fetal blood, while 0.1% of the cases were studied for other diseases by DNA techniques. Error rates for all types of studies were under 1%, and fetal losses below 4%. Approximately 95% of families received safe, accurate information.