The next Wolfson Institute seminar will be held on Tuesday 12 October
1999 at 4pm.
Title: A new approach to antenatal screening for Down's syndrome
(Recently reported in the New England Journal of Medicine)
By: Professor Nicholas Wald
St Bartholomew's & The Royal London School of Medicine & Dentistry
Screening for Down's syndrome in pregnancy is now widespread .
The most commonly used method is a blood test at 15-22 weeks of
pregnancy. The test identifies 5% of women with the highest risk and
then offers them an invasive (and possibly harmful) diagnostic test to confirm
whether the fetus has Down's syndrome or not; this method can detect about 70% of
affected pregnancies. Recently, screening is performed in some places earlier in
pregnancy (10-14 weeks) using a blood test and ultrasound, again by offering
invasive testing to the 5% of women with the highest risk. A new approach to
screening is to combine first and second trimester information into a single test.
This approach can identify 85% of affected fetuses by only offering
an invasive test to 1% of women, representing a significant improvement in
efficacy and safety compared to existing screening methods.
This new approach will be described and discussed.
The seminar will be held at:
The Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine
St Bartholomew's & The Royal London School of Medicine
Charterhouse Square
London EC1M 6BQ.
Nearest underground stations: Barbican and Farringdon
Please contact Dallas Allen on 0171 982 6281 for details.
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