Prenatal diagnosis as a method of prevention of congenital and hereditary diseases

: The program of the prevention of congenital and hereditary diseases with the aid of prenatal diagnosis includes a complex of different methods: ultrasonography, invasive procedures made at different times of pregnancy, obstetrical monitoring, immunochemical blood tests, fetal cytogenetic analysis, pathological, anatomical, and syndromological studies in abortuses. Emphasis is laid on the use of the data on ultrasound screening of the pregnant and screening of the mother's blood for some factors that form a group of women at a greater genetic risk, who require prenatal diagnosis. The efficacy of the preventive measures can be enhanced with combined use of instrumental, obstetrical and laboratory research methods. The establishment of the correct and early diagnosis may, on the one hand, remove the tension and concern in the family; on the other hand, it may prevent bearing a sick child and provide the married couple with a based genetic counselling about progeny.