Efficacy of Maternal Serum Screening in the Prenatal Detection of Fetal Chromosome Abnormalities in Japanese Women

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Abstract
Objective: This prospective study assesses the efficacy of maternal serum screening for use in prenatal diagnosis of fetal anomaly and chromosome imbalance in Japanese women. Methods: Maternal serum α-fetoprotein, human chorionic gonadotropin, and unconjugated estriol were measured in 1,055 singleton pregnant women between 14 and 20 weeks of gestation. A calculated risk for trisomy 21 of ≥1/299 or α-fetoprotein ≥2.5 multiples of the median was adopted as positive. Results: Three hundred and seventy-eight of the 1, 055 women screened (35.8%) were identified as positive. Sensitivity, false-positive rate, and positive predictive value in women aged Conclusions: Our results suggest that the evaluation of each serum marker, as well as of the calculated risk, was significantly important in the prenatal detection of fetal aneuploidy.