Invasive prenatal diagnostic procedures: a developing countries’ perspective -

Background: Antenatal procedures are effective prenatal diagnostic tool for detection of fetal disorders. They have been practiced since time long, still in developing countries like India they are yet to find a place. Here, we report our experience with antenatal procedures from a single medical centre, focusing on the indications and outcome of invasive prenatal procedures. Methods: This is retrospective observational study was conducted on pregnant women presenting at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences; Lucknow, India between July 2009 and September 2013 was conducted. The data were analyzed to find out the indications, gestational age, complications and outcome of diagnostic prenatal testing. Results: Antenatal diagnostic procedures include amniocentesis, chorionic villous sampling, cordocentesis, vesicocentesis and paracentesis. There were 473 total number of procedures done during this period, of which 53 (11.2%) were CVS, 315 (66.5%) were amniocentesis, 72 (15.2%) were cordocentesis, 21(4.4%) were vesicocentesis and 7 (1.4%) were paracentesis. Out of total procedures 47 (9.9%) procedures results were abnormal while 426 had normal results. In abnormal result group, 24 patients (51%) were of gestational age of less than or equal to 20 weeks. All those with lethal / major malformation underwent termination of pregnancy where gestational age of less than 20 weeks. Conclusions: With appropriate prenatal invasive test were able to prevent birth of affected fetus which is of huge importance considering the patients who give birth to abnormal babies only to see them suffering and frequently dying also. Prenatal invasive test were able to prevent this psychological, mental as well as physical trauma in these patients.