4. Prenatal screening evolution
Prenatal screening for chromosomal anomalies (mostly, tri-
somy 21 and other common aneuploidies like trisomy 13 and
18) started in the 1970s and was based initially on maternal
age alone
[41,42]
. Accordingly, pregnant women of 35 years
or older were considered at high risk for such aneuploidies
and, therefore, with indications of amniocentesis
[41]
.
However, since at that time most pregnancies occurred
before the age of 35, more than 75% of the affected pregnan-
cies remained undetected, since no diagnostic test was offered
to ‘‘low risk
”
ages
[43]
.
In the 80’s, it was found that the levels of maternal serum
a
-
fetoprotein in pregnancies of trisomy 21 fetuses were lower on
average than in the case of euploid fetuses
[44]
. This led to the
development of a screening process that combined woman’s
maternal serum
a
-fetoprotein level and her age, making it pos-
sible to identify an additional 20% of all pregnancies affected
by trisomy 21 in women under age 35
[41]
. A few years later,
the measurement of human chorionic gonadotropin (whose
levels were found to be higher in trisomy 21 pregnancies)
was added to serum
a
-fetoprotein and maternal age, which
was dubbed the double test, carried out between the 14th
and 22nd weeks of gestation, thereby ensuring a higher detec-
tion rate for trisomy 21
[44]
.
An improvement in the assessment of risk was later intro-
duced, by adding unconjugated estriol levels (lower in trisomy
21 pregnancies) to the previously referred second trimester
markers, giving rise to the so called the triple test, which
allowed the detection of about 77% of affected pregnancies
for a false-positive rate of 5%
[43]
.
The quadruple test was proposed in 1996 and included, in
addition to the markers used in the triple test, the measurement
of inhibin A levels (higher in trisomy 21 pregnancies), thereby
increasing the detection rate of trisomy 21 to over 80% for the
same false-positive rate
[42]
.
In the late 1990’s, biochemical first trimester screening of
trisomy 21 was found to be possible through the measurement
of the serum concentrations of the free beta subunit of human
chorionic gonadotropin and of pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A), between the 8th and 13th week of preg-
nancy (usually carried out between 10 and 13), with a perfor-
mance that is similar to that achieved with the second trimester
double test
[44]
.