A PROSPECTIVE COMPARATIVE-STUDY ON TRANSABDOMINAL CHORIONIC VILLUS SAMPLING AND AMNIOCENTESIS PERFORMED AT 10-13 WEEKS GESTATION

Women with single, viable pregnancies at 10+5 to 13+6 weeks' gestation who requested fetal karyotyping for maternal age, parental anxiety, o r a previous history of chromosomal aberration were offered participat ion in this study. With a transabdominal ultrasound-guided technique, early amniocentesis (EA) was performed on 147 women and chorionic vill us sampling (CVS) on 174. Spontaneous fetal loss occurred in 6.8 per c ent in the EA group and 1.7 per cent in the CVS group. This difference was significant with a confidence interval (CI) of 0.6-9.6 per cent. There was also a significant difference in the need for repeat testing between the groups. In the EA group a repeat lest was required in 19. 0 per cent due to culture and sample failures, while 5.2 per cent of t he women in the CVS group needed repeat testing because of ambiguous r esults. This prospective study comparing EA and CVS shows that the ris k of fetal loss is higher and repeat testing is needed more often afte r EA. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.