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Second‐trimester maternal serum immunoreactive inhibin as a marker for fetal Down's syndrome
Author(s) -
Van Lith J. M. M.,
Pratt J. J.,
Beekhuis J. R.,
Mantingh A.
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.1970121005
Subject(s) - down syndrome , medicine , fetus , first trimester , second trimester , endocrinology , pregnancy , obstetrics , gynecology , biology , genetics , psychiatry
We measured immunoreactive inhibin in the maternal serum of 80 pregnancies with a chromosomally normal fetus and ten Down's syndrome pregnancies in the second trimester. The inhibin level in all Down's syndrome pregnancies was above the normal median; the multiple of the normal median (MoM) was 1.9. We found a statistically significant difference between the levels of inhibin in unaffected and affected pregnancies (Kolmogorov–Smirnov test: p <0.002). Using an arbitrarily chosen cut‐off of 2.4 MoM, 40 per cent of Down's syndrome and 5 per cent of the normal pregnancies were found. We conclude that immunoreactive inhibin may be useful as a marker for fetal Down's syndrome.