Workshop 6

First trimester and integrated testing in Down's Screening

Ms Sue Standing
Director West Midlands Antenatal Screening Service
Department of Clinical Chemistry, Birmingham Women's Hospital

The last year has seen a number of publications with important implications for antenatal screening; most notably, the National Screening Committee's Working Standards, the SURUSS report, NICE Guidelines on Antenatal Care and the DOH Model of Best Practice for Down's screening. All of these will affect laboratory practice in some way or other and will inevitably accelerate the move towards first trimester screening, possibly in combination with screening in the second trimester (integrated testing).

Currently the laboratory at BWH screens in excess of 50,000 pregnancies for Down's syndrome using the Triple test and we are now offering a screening service using the first trimester analytes.

I see the main value of this workshop is in the sharing of our experiences of this change of direction with those of other parties who may be in a similar position now or in the future. However, I hope it will also be of interest to colleagues who just have a general interest in this rapidly changing area of clinical biochemistry.