PRENATAL SERUM SCREENING - BY MEANS OF TH E ULM-INDEX

Non invasive serum-screening (NIS) for M. Down in pregnant women under 35 years of age should be seen critically. The existing age-dependent screening programmes can detect only 50% of the affected pregnancies in the under-35 age group. The Ulm-Index improves the detection rate u p to 85% including a false positive rate of 8%. In our findings the Ul m-Index is able to reduce invasive procedures such as amniocentesis an d consecutive abortions in pregnant women under 35 years when NIS is d one correctly. Unfortunately, insufficient information of the pregnant women, incorrect gestational age and poor quality of the laboratories reduce the value of NIS programmes.