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Prenatal Diagnosis: Indications

When could exams concerning prenatal diagnosis be particularly necessary?
Due to their invasive features, exams such as villocentesis and amniocentesis might lead to abortion: therefore they are not regularly taken in every pregnancy as a precaution.

Prenatal diagnosis medical techniques are indicated in the following cases:
  • a maternal age over 35 years old,
  • previous pregnancies with children with cromosomical diseases,
  • parents bearing cromosomical anomalies,
  • risky pregnancies due to neural tube or inborn errors of metabolism,
  • Down syndrome or other cromosomical anomalies up in the family tree,
  • theratological indications (for instance, after the use of drugs in pregnancy or infectious diseases).
In the following table is highlighted the number of living borne children with Down syndrome relatively to the maternal age.

Down Syndrome risk relatively to the maternal age.

Age

Risk

20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32

1 : 1528
1 : 1507
1 : 1481
1 : 1447
1 : 1404
1 : 1351
1 : 1286
1 : 1208
1 : 1119
1 : 1018
1 : 909
1 : 796
1: 683

Age

Risk

33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45

1 : 574
1 : 474
1 : 384
1 : 307
1 : 242
1 : 189
1 : 146
1 : 112
1 : 85
1 : 65
1 : 49
1 : 37
1 : 28

5 Gennaio 2003

© 2010 Giovanni Zerlotin