Prenatal diagnosis: results and risks experienced in West Germany
Stengel-Rutkowski, S.
Journal de Genetique Humaine 28(2): 73-88
1980
ISSN/ISBN: 0021-7743 PMID: 7463012 Document Number: 164212
Situations indicating the need for antenatal diagnosis include the following: relatively advanced age of mother, which increased in importance from 40% in 1973 to 78% in 1978; a child with a previous chromosomal aberration, the relative importance of which dropped from 30 to 6%. Pregnancies at risk whereby a child may be born with defective closure of the neural tube occur in 2-5 of endangered cases. At high risk are parents carrying a balanced chromosomal translocation, parents heterozygotic for a metabolic disease and families with an X-linked recessive disease. A list of major German cities having facilities for prenatal diagnosis is given. A classification of various chromosomal anomalies posing a risk for the offspring is provided. Many charts and tabulations citing statistics for West Germany on relative antenatal risk factors provide indications for amniocentesis.