Prenatal aneuploidy screening and its impact on stillbirth etiology evaluation

Stillbirth impacts 1% of all pregnancies in the USA with the underlying cause often remaining unknown. The objective of this study was to identify if prenatal aneuploidy screening impacted patient agreement to stillbirth evaluation.

We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients with a singleton stillbirth after 20 weeks of gestation between October 2017 and December 2021. Demographics and stillbirth evaluation were collected for all patients. Multivariable logistic regression was performed adjusting for variables that were significant in univariate analysis.

A total of 81 persons experienced stillbirth during the study period. Approximately 59.3% of patients had prenatal aneuploidy screening: 39.5% integrated screening, 37.5% non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), and 22.9% quad screen. Prenatal genetic screening did not significantly impact patient agreement to placental pathology, serum laboratory evaluation, or fetal autopsy. Patients with NIPT were less likely to have genetic testing sent at the time of stillbirth compared to those with another aneuploidy screening (aOR 0.27, 95% CI 0.07-0.99).

Prenatal aneuploidy screening was not associated with patient acceptance of stillbirth evaluation. However, patients with NIPT were less likely to pursue further genetic testing during stillbirth evaluation, so further education regarding the benefit of karyotype and microarray should be included in patient counseling.