San Francisco neighborhood clinics offer Prenatal Screening for birth defects like Trisomy 18, which affects candidate Rick Santorum's daughter, spina bifida, and more. The UCSF, CPMC and Kaiser outpatient clinics in the Sunset, Richmond and Fillmore districts all offer California's statewide Prenatal screening program that offers three types of tests to pregnant women to identify those at higher risk for carrying a fetus with a specific birth defect.
The Prenatal Screening Program provides pregnant women with a risk assessment for open neural tube defects (NTD), abdominal wall defects (AWD), Down syndrome (trisomy 21), trisomy 18 and othe defects like spina bifida through blood tests. Trisomy 18 is a genetic defect, and only 5 percent of fetuses with this disorder survive. The survivors are born with massive developmental disabilities including retardation.
The screening doesn't fully diagnosis fetal birth defects, so the Program provides women whose test results show high risk can get free follow-up services at State-approved Prenatal Diagnosis Centers (PDCs) (PDF). Services offered at these Centers in San Francisco include genetic counseling, ultrasound, and amniocentesis. Participation in screening testing and follow-up services is voluntary. The cost of the testing is only $162 and generally covered by insurance. These are the tests.
- Quad Marker Screening - One blood specimen drawn at 15 weeks - 20 weeks of pregnancy (second trimester test).
- Serum Integrated Screening - Combines a first trimester blood test screening result (10 weeks-13 weeks 6 days) with a second trimester blood test screening result (15 weeks-20 weeks).
- Sequential Integrated Screening - Combines first and second blood test results with Nuchal Translucency (NT) ultrasound results. This type of ultrasound measures the back of the fetus' neck to screen for Down syndrome. Patients with first trimester blood specimens and NT will get a preliminary risk assessment for chromosomal abnormalities in the first trimester.
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