Although prenatal screening is routinely undertaken as part of a woman's antenatal care, the ethics surrounding it are complex. In this paper, the author examines the Jewish position on the permissibility of several tests, including those for Down's syndrome and Tay-Sachs disease, the latter being especially common in the Jewish community. Clearly, the status of the tests depends on whether ter...

Maternal markers are widely used to screen for fetal neural tube defects (NTDs), chromosomal abnormalities and cardiac defects. Some are beginning to broaden prenatal screening to include pregnancy complications such as pre-eclampsia. The methods initially developed for NTDs using a single marker have since been built upon to develop high performance multi-maker tests for chromosomal abnormalit...

In the second half of the 20 century, the prenatal diagnosis armamentarium changed dramatically with the introduction of amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling. Both modalities are, however, invasive techniques and carry a certain risk, albeit low (0.5–1%), of pregnancy loss [1]. Routine noninvasive methods of prenatal diagnosis include firstand second-trimester ultrasonography and materna...

OBJECTIVES Prenatal alcohol exposure is a significant public health issue with lifelong psychological, emotional and financial costs associated with caring for an affected individual. In 2005, the Public Health Agency of Canada and Health Canada's First Nations and Inuit Health Branch developed evidence-based guidelines for the diagnosis of a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). We examined ...

This cross-sectional study of 420 women in two public maternity hospitals from August 2004 to May 2005 evaluated the application of a prenatal toxoplasmosis serological screening protocol in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, and the information provided to susceptible pregnant women. Ninety-eight percent of women received prenatal care and 97% underwent the initial serological screeni...

BACKGROUND: Although chronic liver disease remains a major area of health disparity for American Indian (AI) people, the epidemiology of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection among AI people is poorly documented. Because of suspected high local prevalence, two remote AI clinics in the Northern Plains implemented universal prenatal HCV screening in 2005. When this screening program reported an unexp...

~IMAGE ANALYSIS AND PRENATAL SCREENING ITAN'ANLUAN Information obtained from ultrasound images of fetal heads is often used to screen for various types of physical abnormality. In particular, at around 16 to 23 weeks' gestation two-dimensional cross-sections are examined to assess whether a fetus is affected by Neural Tube Defects, a class of disorders that includes Spina Bifida. Unfortunately,...

Down syndrome ([DS] trisomy 21) is the most common cause of intellectual disability worldwide, affects approximately 1:500 pregnancies and is seen in 1:800 to 1:1,000 live births [1]. Down syndrome is the leading cause of prenatal chromosome abnormalities, accounting for 53% of all reported chromosome conditions. Genetic prenatal diagnosis (PD) for DS, since its introduction in the late 1960s, ...

BACKGROUND Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), also known as cell-free DNA testing and non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPS), is an important addition to the range of screening tests for fetal chromosomal abnormalities. For trisomy 21 in particular, NIPT is superior to other screening modalities. However, NIPT has limitations and complexities that requesting clinicians and their patients sho...

Balanced and accurate information about Down's syndrome. The fact that screening does not give a definite diagnosis. An explanation of the risk score obtained following screening. The screening pathway and next steps for screen-positive and screen-negative results, including information about the decisions that need to be made at each step and their consequences. Information about amniocentesis...