The Evaluation of Second Trimester Down’s Syndrome Triple Serum Screening Test in Intrauterine Insemination Pregnancies

Objective: To evaluate second trimester maternal serum total human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) , alphafeto protein (AFP) and unconjugated estriol (uE3) concentration in singleton pregnancies conceived from intrauterine insemination (IUI) Material and Methods: Second trimester (16-20 weeks) maternal serum levels of alpha- feto protein (AFP) , unconjugated estriol (uE3) and total human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) were measured and expressed as multiples of median (MoM) values in 28 patients conceiving singleton pregnancies by intrauterine insemination (IUI). The results were compared with those of 82 naturally occuring singleton pregnancies who had serum screening at 16-20 weeks at the same laboratory over the same period of time. Results: There were no significant differences between the study and control groups in maternal body weight, age, gestational week and habitus of cigarette smoking. The median levels of the triple markers were 1.03±0.66 MoM for hCG, 1.09±0.32 MoM for AFP and 1.06±0.01 MoM for uE3 in the IUI pregnancies. The values of hCG,AFP and uE3 were not significantly different from that in controls. No women were found to be screen positive. In neither group were chromosomal abnormalities detected and no fetal or neonatal deaths were recorded. Conclusions: Based on our findings, IUI did not significantly affect the results of maternal serum Down's syndrome screening. Key words: Alpha feto protein, Unconjugated estriol , Total human chorionic gonadotrophin, Intrauterine insemination