The A.P. is reporting that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is now recommending that all pregnant women receive a new type of test to screen for Down Syndrome.
The newest method, topping ACOG's recommendation for everyone, is a first-trimester screening that combines blood tests with a simple ultrasound exam, called a "nuchal translucency test" to measure the thickness of the back of the fetal neck.
Studies from England, where the nuchal translucency combo has been used for about a decade, and the U.S. conclude that screening method is more than 80 percent accurate, with a very small risk of falsely indicating Down syndrome in a healthy fetus. It is performed between 11 and 13 weeks into pregnancy, and women are usually given numerical odds of carrying an affected fetus.
Back in this post, I discussed that geneticists have discovered that our DNA is more complicated than they originally thought. Because we can have multiple pairs of one gene and zero pairs of another and still be normal, the group was questioning the accuracy of tests such as those used for Down Syndrome. I had wondered how many perfectly normal babies were aborted because their mothers had mistakenly thought they were Down's babies.
The testing is not mandatory and women can still determine whether or not they want the tests at all.
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