title: The influence of serum screening on the amniocentesis rate in women of advanced maternal age.
abstract: We investigated the effect of maternal serum screening on the amniocentesis (AC) rate in women of advanced maternal age. The AC rate after maternal serum screening was compared in two groups of women with a singleton pregnancy, 855 women of 30-35 years and 98 of 36 years and older. In our population, 34.1 per cent of the women of 36 years or older were 'screen-positive' for Down syndrome. Only 41.2 per cent of these women chose to undergo AC as opposed to 88.2 per cent in the younger age group. Within the older age group, the tendency to avoid AC increased with increasing age. Maternal serum screening led to a significant decrease in the AC rate in the older women. In this group, a comparison between the 'a priori' and the calculated risk might have had more influence on the decision to undergo AC than being screen-positive or screen-negative as such. We conclude that maternal serum screening had a major effect on the AC rate in women of advanced maternal age. This is of importance in a society in which the average maternal age is steadily increasing.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Groningen, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Beekhuis
authors.forename: B T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: De Wolf
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mantingh
authors.forename: M P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Heringa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000649:Amniocentesis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006403:Hematologic Tests; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D008423:Maternal Age; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D018566:Pregnancy, High-Risk