Premium
Genetic amniocentesis at 7–14 weeks of gestation
Author(s) -
Jørgensen Finn Stener,
Bang Jens,
Lind AnneMarie,
Christensen Britta,
Lundsteen Claes,
Philip John
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
prenatal diagnosis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.956
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1097-0223
pISSN - 0197-3851
DOI - 10.1002/pd.1970120407
Subject(s) - amniocentesis , gestation , abortion , medicine , pregnancy , obstetrics , gynecology , prenatal diagnosis , fetus , biology , genetics
Abstract Genetic amniocentesis performed at 7–14 weeks of gestation was studied in a series of 138 patients of whom 50 wanted termination of pregnancy (⩽ 12 weeks). The material for analysis consisted of 132 samples due to two sampling failures and four samples being handled incorrectly. Forty‐eight samples (36 per cent) were taken at 7–12 weeks of gestation, mainly transvaginally (36/48:75 per cent). The success rate of culture and karyotyping increased with the duration of pregnancy, but was only satisfactory from week 11 onwards. The time until harvest was then 14–15 days. The transvaginal approach is easy to perform and was accepted by the women, but we experienced bacterial or fungal overgrowth in 17 per cent of these samples, whereas no infection occurred in the samples taken transabdominally ( n = 96). We conclude that genetic amniocentesis is feasible from week 11, but further studies concerning side effects, especially focusing on the procedure‐related abortion risk, should be carried out before early amniocentesis is routinely applied.