Determinants of first trimester combined test participation within the central region of the Netherlands.

Objective: Our objective is to study the association between potentially influential determinants and first-trimester combined test (FCT) uptake rates in the central region of the Netherlands.

Methods: Data were extracted from the national prenatal screening database Peridos and the Netherlands Perinatal Registry and compared at the level of the health care provider. Univariable and multivariable linear regression analysis was used to determine the effect of determinants (maternal age, parity, socio-economic status (SES), mode of conception, ethnicity and urbanisation) on uptake.

[Group counselling for the second trimester ultrasound: can group counselling be an alternative for individual counselling?].

Objective: To compare group counselling to individual counselling with respect to the second trimester ultrasound.

Design: A prospective cohort study at two hospitals.

Method: At one hospital, 100 pregnant women were counselled on the risks and benefits of the second trimester ultrasound in groups of up to 15 patients.

Modeling Down syndrome screening performance using first-trimester serum markers.

Objective: To evaluate the modeled predictive value of three current screening markers (pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A), free β-human chorionic gonadotropin (free β-hCG), and nuchal translucency (NT)) and four potential screening markers (a disintegrin and metalloprotease 12 (ADAM12), total hCG, placental protein 13 (PP13), and placental growth factor (PlGF)) for Down syndrome using different screening strategies.

Methods: All markers were measured in stored first-trimester serum of 151 Down syndrome cases and 847 controls. All marker levels were expressed as gestational age-specific multiples of the median (MoMs) and comparisons were made using the Mann-Whitney U-test.

Trends in the utilization of invasive prenatal diagnosis in The Netherlands during 2000-2009.

Objective: To analyze trends in the number and type of invasive procedure, reasons for referral, maternal age and chromosomal abnormalities over a 10-year period and correlate the trends to changes in the national prenatal screening policy.

Methods: Data from 10 706 invasive prenatal procedures yielding a full karyotype, performed between 2000 and 2009 were extracted from the cytogenetic database in the central region of The Netherlands. Trends were analyzed.

First-trimester placental protein 13 and placental growth factor: markers for identification of women destined to develop early-onset pre-eclampsia.

Objective:  To investigate the predictive value of maternal serum pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A), free β subunit of human chorionic gonadotrophin (fβ-hCG), placental protein 13 (PP13), placental growth factor (PlGF) and a desintegrin and metalloproteinase 12 (ADAM12), for first-trimester identification of early-onset pre-eclampsia.

Design:   Nested case-control study.

Setting:   Routine first-trimester screening for trisomy 21 in the Netherlands.