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Modern possibilities of prenatal screening using the PRISCA program

Every expectant mother is worried about the health of her baby. Is it possible to find out in the early stages of pregnancy if everything is in order? Modern medicine answers this question positively. Gynecologists and geneticists have many diagnostic methods at their disposal that allow them to judge the health and development of a fetus still in the womb.

A big step in prenatal diagnosis has been made in recent years in connection with the development of genetics and the improvement of laboratory diagnostics. There are several screening techniques performed during pregnancy. They allow, with varying degrees of confidence, to suspect some fetus abnormalities and help identify a risk group that needs to be examined in more depth.

The first of these was the so-called double test. The association of Down syndrome with maternal age was first identified in 1970, it was found that the older the mother, the higher the risk of having a fetus with this syndrome. The double test was developed in the early 80s, it is used in the first trimester, and includes, in addition to information about the age of the mother, the determination of the level of proteins and hormones inherent in the fetus in her blood: РАРР-A (pregnancy associated protein A, plasma protein A associated with pregnancy) and free b-a subunit of human chorionic gonadotropin.

Later, in order to improve the accuracy of the prognosis, a triple test was created - detection of markers of malformations and genetic pathology of the fetus in the blood: alpha-fetoprotein, human chorionic gonadotropin, free estriol.

The PRISCA method is an advanced double and triple test. This is a special computer program that processes the data of a laboratory analysis of a woman's blood along with the results of ultrasound diagnostics and certain information about the mother.

The PRISCA program allows you to increase the accuracy of testing and eliminates the possibility of errors associated with incorrect interpretation of the result. Laboratory tests are carried out on the immunochemiluminescent analyzer Immulite 2000 XRi (Siemens, USA), which ensures high accuracy of the results. The analysis is conducted in the first and second trimester of pregnancy.

So, for the PRISCA test, the results of laboratory tests (AFP, HCG, E2), the age of the mother, weight, gestation period (determined by ultrasound by measuring the biparietal size of the head), and some other indicators are entered into the computer. To do this, an obstetrician-gynecologist fills out a special questionnaire. Based on these data, the program calculates the risk of fetal birth with Down syndrome, Edwards syndrome and neural tube defects.

According to WHO, out of 1,000 newborns, 16 children have genetic pathology, of which 1-2 are born with Down syndrome. The high frequency and severity of this disease determine the need for widespread use of prenatal diagnosis. Currently, screening programs for mass examination of pregnant women have been adopted in developed countries of the world for the timely detection of fetus abnormalities - Down syndrome, Edwards syndrome, non-infection of the neural tube.

In Edwards syndrome, there is a marked delay in prenatal development during the full duration of pregnancy.

Neural tube defects are an incomplete process of its closure. An open neural tube defect leads to an increase in the level of alpha-fetoprotein in the mother's blood serum, due to the penetration of fetus plasma through the defect into the amniotic fluid, and then into the mother's blood. The probability of detecting anencephaly using the PRISCA program is 97-98%.

Every woman who carries a baby under her heart has disturbing thoughts at one stage or another of pregnancy. The PRISCA program will help you to dispel doubts, and in case of detection of markers of genetic pathology of the fetus, to undergo additional examinations in time.

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