Semester
Fall
Date of Graduation
2000
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MS
College
Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design
Department
Biochemistry
Committee Chair
Joginder Nath.
Abstract
Maternal serum triple screen is used to identify women less than 35 years of age who are at an increased risk of having a fetus with Down syndrome. The screen identifies 5% of women tested as being at an increased risk but only 2--3% of these women actually have a fetus with chromosome abnormalities, indicating a high false positive rate. Medical records for 900 cases referred for maternal serum triple screen and maternal age were reviewed. The percentages of abnormal karyotypes in the two populations were not significantly different from each other or the expected value. While 3% of all cases with normal karyotype had an abnormal ultrasound, 33% of cases with abnormal karyotypes had an abnormal ultrasound. This suggests that ultrasound may be helpful in identifying fetuses with Down syndrome. While maintaining the same detection rate of abnormal fetuses, it would also decrease the number of invasive procedures performed.
Recommended Citation
Lane, Jonnie Ann, "Evaluation of maternal serum triple screen as an identifier of trisomy 21 pregnancy" (2000). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 1127.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/1127