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Public Relations / Marketing OfficerDavid Bruzzese For Immediate Release Mercy offers non-invasive fetal screening for Down syndrome Nuchal translucency screening is ideally performed by a trained, certified sonographer using high resolution ultrasound between 11 and 14 weeks of pregnancy. First-trimester nuchal translucency screening measures the thickness of the skin in a small area at the back of the fetus’s neck. The results are combined with the mother’s age to determine an adjusted risk for Down syndrome. Together with a maternal blood test, nuchal translucency screening provides an approximately 80 percent detection rate for Down syndrome, which affects about one in 800 births. While nuchal translucency screening results are found to be normal in the majority of cases, in the event abnormalities are found, a woman has the option of undergoing chronic villus sampling or amniocentesis for further diagnosis. “Nuchal translucency screening is an important addition to the diagnostic imaging services we provide to women,” said Dennis Soappman, director of Mercy’s diagnostic imaging department. “Pregnant women in the Four Corners region no longer have to travel outside the area for this test,” he added. One sonographer at Mercy Regional Medical Center is currently credentialed through the Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF) to perform nuchal translucency screening and several others in the hospital’s ultrasound department are actively pursuing certification. All sonographers at Mercy are registered through the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) in obstetrical and gynecologic ultrasound, and the hospital’s ultrasound department is fully accredited through the American College of Radiology (ACR). Since the ACOG issued its recommendation in January of 2007 that every pregnant woman have a nuchal translucency screening exam, many insurance providers, including Medicaid of Colorado, now cover the cost. # # # |
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