Prenatal Testing or Screening?

Abstract

Over the past 50 years, the scope and extent of prenatal diagnosis and screening for genetic disorders have improved geometrically. There has been a pendulum like swing from testing to screening back and forth as new technologies emerge. The concurrent developments of cell free fetal DNA analysis of maternal blood has dramatically changed patient's choices towards screening. However, with the use of array comparative genomic hybridization of fetal DNA that requires diagnostic procedures (Chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis), much more extensive diagnosis can be obtained. Until noninvasive methods can replicate what can be done with diagnostic procedures there still will be a "price to be paid"for opting for the non-invasive methods.