The Down syndrome birth rate has significantly decreased with the introduction of screening tests from 22.28 per 100,000 live births in 2001 to 7.79 in 2010, the Taiwan Society of Perinatology said yesterday, urging all pregnant women to undertake the recommended tests.
The incidence of Down syndrome was 7.92 per 10,000 births between 2001 and 2010, which means that there was one infant born with the disorder in every 1,263 live births, according to the group, which said that the incidence increases with the age of the pregnant woman, with 1 in every 385 live births for pregnant women who are 35.
“The incidence rate for pregnant mothers aged 23 is about one per 1,000 to 1,500,” society president Tsai Ming-sing (蔡明松) said. “With advancing age, at 40, the risk increases to 1 in 100.”
A research team led by attending physician of obstetrics at National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) Lee Chien-nan (李建南) found that there is a positive impact of Down syndrome screening on Taiwanese births.
The second-trimester — 15 to 20 weeks — double test (AFP test and B-hCG test) was introduced to Taiwan in 1994 and has a detection rate of 60 percent; the test reduced the ratio of live-born to total Down syndrome occurrence (registered live births and still births) from 70.42 percent in 1994 to 48.74 percent in 2001, according to the team.
The ratio has further decreased to 25.88 percent in 2006, said Lee, when the first-trimester (10 to 13+6 weeks) screening, or nuchal translucency scan, was widely introduced in Taiwan.
However, as some pregnant women take a screening test only when they are in the second trimester of pregnancy, and as the detection rate of the second-trimester double test is not satisfactory, since 2008 the second-trimester quadruple test (with the addition of two more markers, uE3 and Inhibin A) has been used and has increased the detection rate to 81 percent.
The combination of the first and the new second trimester tests has decreased the ratio of live-born to total Down syndrome occurrence to 20.64 percent in 2008 and to 5.99 percent in 2010.
Obstetrician Lin Shin-yu of NTUH’s Hsin-Chu Branch, a co-author of the research, said that the amniocentesis, or amniotic fluid test (AFT), is very accurate in detecting the condition and is recommended by Taiwan’s health authority for pregnant women aged 35 years and over, despite some drawbacks.
“It has a risk of miscarriage of one to three per 1,000 due to its invasive character,” Lin said.
“AFT is also much more expensive,” Lin said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS