[Screening for Down's syndrome--results of a 3-year study]

In a group of 5382 examined pregnant women the authors demonstrate the results of systematic prenatal screening of Down's syndrome. From the results it is apparent that it is essential to supplement each examination of alpha-fetoprotein by assessment of total HCG which is considered a parameter of greater impact for prediction of chromosomal aberrations. Since the beginning of 1993 all examinations were evaluated, using the commercial software ALPHA; its advantage is in particular that it expresses the overall risk due to age and two parameters assessed by laboratory tests and the reduction of the magnitude of the risk group to the acceptable level of 6.6%.