It is important for mothers to have a healthy baby, and to prevent the birth of a baby with a rare disease or birth defect, pregnant women can be screened for Down’s syndrome to learn about the fetus’
The Down’s syndrome test can be used to find out the condition of the fetus and to treat it. Let’s learn more about this.
Down’s syndrome screening is an abbreviation for prenatal screening for Down’s syndrome. The purpose of the test is to determine the risk of Down’s syndrome in the fetus by testing the blood of the pregnant woman and combining it with other clinical information. If the results of the screening test show a high risk of Down’s syndrome in the fetus, further confirmatory tests, such as amniocentesis or chorionic villus testing, should be performed.
When to do Down’s syndrome screening
Once a woman learns that she is pregnant, she needs to go to the hospital for regular maternity checkups, not only to know the physical condition of the mother-to-be, but also to be informed about the development of the fetus. In the twelfth week of pregnancy, you will need to check your weight, blood pressure, listen to the fetal heartbeat, uterine size, take blood and urine tests, and get a past medical history. When you reach about thirteen to sixteen weeks, you will enter the middle of pregnancy and need to be screened for Down syndrome. If detected in time, it may be possible to correct the condition through early intervention and the child will be born as normal.
When is the most accurate time to do Down’s syndrome screening?
1. It is best to do it between 16 and 18 weeks of pregnancy. The range is 15-20 weeks.
2, is to draw a little more blood.
3.This is a free choice, you can not do it. 34 weeks of age or younger, 35 weeks of age, the test is decided by the doctor.
4.It can check the probability of congenital malformation of the baby.
How much is the Down’s syndrome screening test?
Down’s syndrome screening is a necessary step in the pregnancy test, and the price varies greatly from hospital to hospital in different areas, ranging from about one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars. Before the Down’s syndrome screening, an ultrasound is usually required to find out the actual gestational age of the fetus. The actual number of tests that need to be done at the same time is not only this one, but also other items such as electrocardiograms and blood and urine tests.
Some policies support free checkups for pregnant women with rural household registration, and the out-of-pocket price is not very expensive. This test is very important and mothers need to face it positively.
Down’s syndrome screening has several results
The Down’s syndrome screening test is a mandatory part of a pregnant woman’s maternity checkup. It tests the concentration of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and human chorionic gonadotropin (beta-HCG) in the pregnant woman’s blood and, when combined with the woman’s age, uses a computer to precisely calculate the risk of each pregnant woman carrying a fetus with Down’s syndrome.
1.High risk range
(1) The normal value of AFP should be greater than 2.5MoM. The lower the value of the test, the higher the chance of the fetus having Down’s syndrome.
(2) The higher the chorionic gonadotropin, the higher the chance of Down’s syndrome in the fetus.
(3) The doctor will also input the AFP and chorionic gonadotropin values as well as the age, weight and number of weeks of pregnancy into the computer to calculate the risk of Down’s syndrome in the fetus.
Some hospitals have a normal value of less than 1/270″, while others have a normal value of less than 1/380″.
How to read the results of Down’s syndrome screening
Pregnant women need to be screened for Down’s syndrome between 15 and 20 weeks of pregnancy. Down’s screening is based on a blood test of the pregnant woman to evaluate various different indicators in the blood, including: human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), alpha-fetoprotein (AFp), estriol (uE3), and inhibin-A (inhibin-A).
To determine the risk of Down screening, 3 main numbers are looked at.
1. The normal value of alpha-fetoprotein should be greater than 2.5 MoM. The lower the laboratory value, the higher the chance of the fetus having Down’s syndrome.
2. The higher the chorionic gonadotropin, the higher the chance of Down’s syndrome.
The risk of Down’s syndrome is calculated by the computer. If the risk is less than 1/270, the risk is low and the chance of Down’s syndrome is less than 1%. If the risk is higher than 1/270, the risk is higher and further amniocentesis or chorionic villus testing should be done.