The role of ultrasound in first-trimester screening after the introduction of NIPT as a service of public health insurance – a consensus statement of the Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF) Germany

Abstract

Combined first-trimester screening (FTS) and noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) have been proven to be reliable noninvasive procedures to detect the most common chromosomal abnormalities (trisomies 21, 18, 13) in the first trimester. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the strengths and limitations of these two procedures and to give a consensus statement of the Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF) Germany on how to use the two techniques in the first trimester after the introduction of NIPT as a service of the statutory health insurance companies in Germany.

Zusammenfassung

Das kombinierte Ersttrimester-Screening und der nichtinvasive DNA-Test (NIPT) haben sich als verlässliche nichtinvasive Verfahren zur Diagnostik der häufigsten Chromosomen-Anomalien (Trisomie 21, 18, 13) im 1. Trimenon gezeigt. Das Ziel dieser Publikation ist es, die Stärken, wie auch die Limitierungen, beider Verfahren aufzuzeigen und ein Konsensus-Statement der Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF) Deutschland abzugeben, wie beide Techniken im 1. Trimenon eingesetzt werden sollen, nachdem NIPT als Kassenleistung in Deutschland eingeführt wurde.

Keywords

Combined first-trimester screening - contingent screening - cell-free fetal DNA - prenatal ultrasound - chromosome anomalies

Publication History

Received: 29 January 2023

Accepted after revision: 22 May 2023

Article published online:
01 August 2023

• References

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