The effect of fetal gender on the false‐positive rate of Down syndrome by maternal serum screening

OBJECTIVES: (1) To further explore if there is a difference in maternal serum levels of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) and estriol (uE3) between fetal genders. (2) To determine if these differences influence false-positive rates of Down syndrome screening in pregnancies with male or female fetuses. METHODS: This is a descriptive study of women screened at the Ontario Maternal Serum Screening program between 1993 …