Maternal Screening (Outside the U.S)

Maternal screening is an increasingly common approach to attempt to detect Down syndrome, and other chromosomal abnormalities. Maternal screening reduces the number of amniocentesis tests that need to be performed and so reduce the risk of fetal loss. Abnormally high or abnormally low levels of various markers in maternal serum may be indicative of fetal neural tube defects and conditions associated with extra chromosomes. Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics offers a unique combination of immunoassays, instruments and software for maternal screening for neural tube defects, Trisomy 18 and Trisomy 21.

Our maternal screening program includes a comprehensive test menu used in conjunction with specialized PRISCA* software that allows laboratories to consolidate testing on the IMMULITE® immunoassay systems. The test menu includes:

First trimester (10-13 + 6 weeks)
Free βhCG¹
PAPP-A²

Second trimester (14-21 weeks)
AFP
Total hCG
Unconjugated Estriol

Learn more about the clinical significance of these assays

Siemens CE-marked PRISCA software processes data from the maternal screening tests and provides an automatic risk of a fetal defect. PRISCA provides a selection of different patient risk assessment reports for the first and second trimester.
PRISCA software