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: G Baviera, C Carbone, F Corrado, P Mastrantonio
• Journal: The journal of maternal-fetal & neonatal medicine : the official journal of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine, the Federation of Asia and Oceania Perinatal Societies, the International Society of Perinatal Obstetricians (J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med) Vol. 16 Issue 4 Pg. 241-3 (Oct 2004) ISSN: 1476-7058 [Print] England
• PMID: 15590454 (Publication Type: Evaluation Study, Journal Article)

Chemical References

• GH2 protein, human
• Placental Hormones
• Growth Hormone

Topics

• Adult
• Case-Control Studies
• Down Syndrome (diagnosis)
• False Positive Reactions
• Female
• Growth Hormone (blood)
• Humans
• Placental Hormones (blood)
• Pregnancy (blood)
• Pregnancy Trimester, Second
• Prenatal Diagnosis (methods, standards)
• ROC Curve
• Retrospective Studies