Comparison of Maternal Serum Screening Test Efficacy for Down Syndrome.

Lee, Chung No; Lee, Yong Won; Jun, Hye Sun; Lee, Suk Whan; Kim, Kyung Lyul; Cha, Kwang Eun; Cha, Kyung Sub; Baek, Jin Young

Original Article

Korean Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology 1997;40(4):721-731.
Published online January 1, 2001.

Comparison of Maternal Serum Screening Test Efficacy for Down Syndrome.

Chung No Lee, Yong Won Lee, Hye Sun Jun, Suk Whan Lee, Kyung Lyul Kim, Kwang Eun Cha, Kyung Sub Cha, Jin Young Baek

¹Department of Obstetrics and Gyneclology, Cha General Hospital, Korea.
²Department of Clinical Pathology, Cha General Hospital, Korea.

Abstract

Maternal serum alpha-feto protein(MSAFP) screening test has provided high sensitivity and specificity in detecting neural tube defects(NTD). Approximately 80~90% of NTD can be identified by this screening test.Prospective studies have shown that low levels of MSAFP can be used for Down syndrome screening test, but the detection rate for Down syndrome in combination with age is only 20% in younger women, making this screening test relatively insensitive. However recently some studies have suggested that the triple marker test with MSAFP, unconjugated estriol, beta-human chorionic gonadotropin achieved higher detection rate for Down syndrome. The purpose of present study is to compare the positive predictive values of both MSAFP and Triple test. We had 6,436 cases of MSAFP test during the year of 1994 and 7,077 cases for triple test during the year of 1995. We analyzed data with positive results by screening both tests, since our purpose is to compare positive value. The number of positive results were 290(triple test) and 206(AFP) respectively. With this study, we concluded that positive predictive value of triple marker test is 4.17 times greater than of the MSAP test.

Key Words: Down syndrome, Maternal screening test, Positive predictive value