Pregnant mothers, have you heard of Down screening? Have you heard of glucose screening? Both “Down Screening” and “Sugar Screening” are very important obstetric screenings during pregnancy to detect Down’s syndrome and gestational diabetes. The two have similar names, but their roles are a hundred thousand miles apart. 1. Down’s syndrome screening is short for Down’s syndrome screening. The Down’s syndrome (Down’s syndrome) is actually not new to us, we see in our lives congenital stupidity (commonly known as “big dummy”, “big idiot”) is mainly Down’s syndrome patients. Down’s syndrome is caused by an extra chromosome 21 (normal people only have 2), so it is also called trisomy 21 (note, not the novel “Trisomy” by Liu Cixin!) . In order to prevent the birth of Down’s syndrome fetus, the risk of Down’s syndrome is predicted by means of blood sampling during pregnancy, which is called “Down Screening”. 2. Sugar screening is short for gestational diabetes screening. Regardless of the presence of diabetes before pregnancy, some pregnant women may develop abnormal blood sugar or even diabetes during pregnancy, which can cause a series of maternal and fetal damage if not controlled. Therefore, early detection of abnormal blood glucose and even diabetes during pregnancy is also very important. When should I have Down and Sugar Screening? The Down screening is usually done between 16-21 weeks of pregnancy, and some hospitals will do it twice around 12 weeks and 16-21 weeks. Glucose screening is done by oral glucose water between 24-28 weeks. Are Down’s syndrome and glucose screening done the same way? As mentioned earlier, Down’s syndrome screening is done by testing the levels of three substances in the blood to calculate the risk of Down’s syndrome in the fetus. It is important to tell the doctor the age, last menstrual period, weight and the exact week of pregnancy when the blood is drawn for the screening. The glucose screening requires taking 50g of glucose (dissolved in 200ml of water) within 5 minutes after 12 hours of fasting, and then blood is drawn 1 hour later to test the glucose level to determine the possibility of gestational diabetes by the level of the glucose level. How to read the report of Down screening and glucose screening? The report of Down screening shows a score (e.g. 1/270), which describes the risk of Down’s syndrome in the fetus. If it is “high risk”, it does not mean that it is Down’s syndrome, but it should be further confirmed by amniocentesis. If the report shows “low risk”, it doesn’t mean that the fetus is 100% fine, but the risk of Down’s syndrome is very low. In addition, screening for Down’s syndrome (some hospitals may also screen for the risk of open neural tube abnormalities) is not a substitute for ultrasound screening for malformations. For example, if you are concerned about whether your baby has a harelip, multiple fingers (toes) or even missing arms and legs, Down screening cannot solve this problem. The result of glucose screening is the blood sugar value, <7.8 mmol/L can basically exclude the possibility of gestational diabetes. The OGTT can clearly determine whether or not you have diabetes. The next time someone asks you, "Have you done the glucose screening yet?