PRENATAL-DIAGNOSIS IN SWITZERLAND

Switzerland, with a population of slightly over 7 million, has about 8 3,000 births per year. There is no comprehensive national registry for prenatal diagnosis (PND) or congenital malformations. Health care is largely organised within each of the 23 counties. Whereas ultrasound s creening is available to all pregnant women, the availability of other types of PND is largely determined by proximity to the university med ical centres or specialised clinics. Maternal biochemical serum screen ing is offered by some 15-20 laboratories, and cytogenetic analyses ar e performed in 8. DNA-based diagnosis is essentially limited to the me dical genetics departments/divisions of the 5 university medical schoo ls. It can be estimated that slightly over 10% of gestations are monit ored by invasive prenatal diagnostic techniques. The greatest challeng e for the future will be the training of the medical and paramedical p ersonnel necessary for the current and future pre- and postnatal diagn ostic testing.