Patient's question:
Is it true that if you're pregnant with twins, you can't have the Down syndrome screening? What tests can be done to determine if the baby is normal?Doctor's answer:
Hello, as a who is 16 weeks pregnant, one of the very important prenatal screenings is the screening for Down syndrome. It has nothing to do with whether it's twins or not. Another important test is the ultrasound, among others, to check for Down syndrome. Down syndrome is a sporadic disease, so every pregnant woman has the possibility of giving birth to a "Down syndrome child." The chance of having a Down syndrome child increases as the mother's age increases. The screening test can detect 60-70% of Down syndrome children. It needs to be clarified that the screening test can only help determine the likelihood of the fetus having Down syndrome, but it cannot confirm whether the fetus actually has Down syndrome.Down syndrome screening is a method that involves drawing blood from the pregnant woman, testing the concentration of alpha-fetoprotein and human chorionic gonadotropin in the maternal serum, and then calculating the risk factor for giving birth to a Down syndrome child based on the mother's due date, age, weight, and gestational age at the time of blood collection. The best time for screening is between the 15th and 20th weeks of pregnancy. Generally, the pregnant woman can receive the screening results within one week of the blood test. If the screening index of the Down syndrome screening is abnormal, the pregnant woman should undergo an amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling. Only if the results of the amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling are normal can Down syndrome be completely ruled out.
Testing the serum AFP and HGG can also screen for high-risk pregnant women with neural tube defects, 18-trisomy syndrome, and 13-trisomy syndrome.