Detection Rates for Aneuploidy by First-Trimester and Sequential Screening.

Objective: To estimate detection rates for aneuploidy by first-trimester and sequential screening.

Methods: The study included women with singleton pregnancies who participated in the California Prenatal Screening Program with estimated delivery dates from August 2009 to December 2012 who had first- or first- and second-trimester (sequential) screening. Detection rates were measured for target (trisomies 21 and 18) and other aneuploidies identified from the California Chromosome Defect Registry.

Risk of critical congenital heart defects by nuchal translucency norms.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of first-trimester nuchal translucency (NT) cutoff of ≥3.5 mm with NT percentiles that were calculated for crown-rump length to identify fetuses with critical congenital heart defects (CCHDs).

Study Design: This was a population-level study of singleton pregnancies in California with NT measurements performed between 11 and 14 weeks of gestation.

Risk of selected structural abnormalities in infants after increased nuchal translucency measurement.

Objective: We sought to examine the association between increased first-trimester fetal nuchal translucency (NT) measurement and major noncardiac structural birth defects in euploid infants.

Study Design: Included were 75,899 singleton infants without aneuploidy or critical congenital heart defects born in California in 2009 through 2010 with NT measured between 11-14 weeks of gestation. Logistic binomial regression was employed to estimate relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for occurrence of birth defects in infants with an increased NT measurement (by percentile at crown-rump length [CRL] and by ≥3.

Obstetric, perinatal, and fetal outcomes in pregnancies with false-positive integrated screening results.

Objective: To assess the risk of adverse obstetric, perinatal, and fetal outcomes for pregnant women participating in prenatal sequential integrated screening through the California Prenatal Screening Program who had a false-positive screening result.

Methods: Women who underwent first- and second-trimester prenatal integrated screening plus nuchal translucency measurement with outcome information available were included. Fetuses and neonates with chromosomal or neural tube defects were excluded.

The California Prenatal Screening Program: "options and choices" not "coercion and eugenics".

The California Prenatal Screening Program is designed to make prenatal screening available to the state's large and diverse population. The Program provides information to women which will allow them to make informed choices regarding prenatal screening and prenatal diagnosis. Since the Program's inception in 1986, women in California have had the option to participate in prenatal screening or to decline prenatal screening.