title: Placental growth hormone in Down's syndrome screening.
abstract: A number of serum markers have been proposed to improve the sensitivity (and specificity) of the triple test, which, until now, has been the gold standard in second-trimester serum screening for Down's syndrome. Among them, human placental growth hormone (hPGH) has been proposed because of its significantly elevated serum levels in pregnancies affected by chromosomal aneuploidies. Our experience, on maternal serum stored from 32 Down's syndrome-affected pregnancies, confirms a slight but significant increase in hPGH levels compared with controls. These data summarized to that of the previous screening could give a calculated detection rate of 71.9%, better than that of the standard triple test alone (65.6%).
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baviera
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Carbone
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Corrado
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mastrantonio
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D013006:Growth Hormone / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D010926:Placental Hormones / Q000097:blood*; D011247:Pregnancy / Q000097:blood*; D011262:Pregnancy Trimester, Second; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D012372:ROC Curve; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: C064980:GH2 protein, human; D010926:Placental Hormones; D013006:Growth Hormone