Maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein is a marker for fetal anomalies in pediatric surgery.

Maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein (MS-AFP) screening has become part of routine obstetric care. Although elevated MS-AFP was originally associated with neural tube defects (NTD), it is also able to detect several fetal anomalies of interest to a pediatric surgeon, ie, ventral abdominal wall defects, intestinal atresias, and sacrococcygeal teratomas. Previously, decreased MS-AFP had only been associated with fetal trisomies, but not surgically correctable lesions.

Attitudes of persons at risk for Huntington disease toward predictive testing.

Attitudes of 69 persons at risk for Huntington disease (HD) were obtained by means of semistructured interviews and questionnaires. About 79% of the individuals said that they would use a presymptomatic predictive test if it were available. All believed that the test should be made available even though there was no cure for HD.