Occupational Health - Public Health Poster Session

IMPACT OF SECOND TRIMESTER MATERNAL SERUM SCREENING IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA, ,

Robert cocciolone
cocciolonr@wch.sa.gov.au

The South Australian Maternal Serum Screening Programme(SAMSAS) is in effect the "prescreen" to offering amniocentesis. Our programme identifies women, irrespective of age,
which may be at increased risk, and would therefore require followup.
This type of programme has been effective in reducing the number of
unnecessary amniocentesis performed to older woman, whilst identifying younger mums at risk who ordinarily would not be considered. The prevalence of Down syndrome in 1997 in our screened population was 27 in 11410 or 1 in 423, which is higher than previous years of 1in 808 in 1996 and 1in 669 in 1995 an 1 in 769 in 1994. The average for the four years is 1 in 667.

[ This message was edited on Fri Dec 11 by the author ]

Fri Dec 11