Rise in Down's syndrome diagnoses
Tuesday October 27th, 2009
Growing numbers of babies with Down's syndrome are being identified during pregnancy in Britain, researchers report today.
Between 1990 and 2008, the number of cases diagnosed in pregnancy soared by 71 per cent, according to a report published on-line by the British Medical Journal.
Cases of the syndrome may be increasing because growing numbers of women are having children at an older age.
Critics were quick to point out the success of the screening programme has also meant an increase in the number of abortions linked to Down's syndrome.
Screening tests during pregnancy diagnosed 71 per cent more cases of Down's syndrome in 2007/08 compared with 1989/90.
Professor Joan Morris of Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, UK, and colleagues say the number rose from 1,075 in 1989/90 to 1,843 in 2007/8.
The team looked at figures from the National Down Syndrome Cytogenetic Register, which holds details of 26,488 antenatal and postnatal diagnoses of Down's syndrome made by all cytogenetic laboratories in England and Wales since 1989.
Despite the rise in diagnoses, the number of live births with Down's syndrome fell by one per cent (752 to 743, or 1.10 to 1.08 per 1,000 births) because of abortion.
"In the absence of such screening, numbers of live births with Down's syndrome would have increased by 48 per cent," the authors write on the website of the British Medical Journal.
They explain that the main indication of a raised risk used to be a maternal age of 37 years or above, but since the mid-1990s, maternal serum testing and, later, measurement of fetal nuchal translucency, were used as screening tests.
"Antenatal screening has achieved higher rates of correct predictions and higher coverage year on year," they write.
The proportion of antenatal diagnoses since 1989 "has increased most strikingly in younger women, whereas that in older women has stayed relatively constant", they state.
"This trend suggests that monitoring of the numbers of babies born with Down's syndrome is essential to ensure adequate provision for their needs," the authors conclude.
Tags: Child Health | Childbirth and Pregnancy | Nursing & Midwifery | UK News | Women’s Health & Gynaecology
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