First-trimester Down syndrome screening in women younger than 35 years old and cost-effectiveness analysis in Taiwan population.

Objectives: Outcome of the first-trimester Down syndrome screening in younger population was less reported before. We present the outcome of this screening in Taiwanese women younger than 35 years old. We also test whether or not the first-trimester Down syndrome screening of women <35 years of age and women >35 years old routinely receiving amniocentesis is cost-effective compared with all pregnant women screened with this test in the setting of increased maternal age.

Low maternal serum levels of pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A during the first trimester are associated with subsequent preterm delivery with preterm premature rupture of membranes.

Objective: To assess the relationship between the first-trimester maternal serum pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) levels and pregnancies complicated by preterm delivery.

Materials And Methods: The correlation between PAPP-A levels and gestational age at delivery was analyzed by linear regression. The probabilities of low PAPP-A multiples of the median (MoM) levels between preterm delivery and control population were analyzed by logit model.

Pregnancy outcomes in unselected singleton pregnant women with an increased risk of first-trimester Down's syndrome.

Background: The purpose of this study was to assess outcomes in pregnancies with a positive screen of first-trimester combined test (nuchal translucency, pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A and free beta-human chorionic gonadotropin).

Methods: Using a cut-off level of 1 in 270, 216 (7.1%) women had a positive screen.

Association between fetal nuchal translucency thickness in first trimester and subsequent gestational hypertension and preeclampsia.

Increased fetal nuchal translucency (NT) in the first trimester is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. Whether the increased NT is also associated with an increased frequency of pregnancy-associated hypertension (PAH) is not known. Seven hundred and seventy-nine pregnant women who received NT-based Down syndrome screening and delivered their babies at our hospital by September 2000 were enrolled into this study.