The incidence of Down syndrome in newborns at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Clinical center Kragujevac during the period 2007-2012

Objective. The main objective of this study was to determine the incidence of Down syndrome in newborn infants diagnosed prenatally and in newborn children in Kragujevac. Methods. This retrospective study included groups of 1208 pregnant women and 10,712 mothers aged 14-55 years, who came to the Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinic, Clinical Center Kragujevac during the period 2007-2012. Cells of amniotic fluid, taken during amniocentesis between 16 and 18 weeks of pregnancy, were cultured for 12 days and, after cytogenetic processing, stained and analyzed with light microscopy. Data were analyzed and presented descriptively. Results. During the four year period, between January 2007 and December 2011, 8 cases of Down syndrome were diagnosed by amniocentesis of 1208 amnions, which resulted in incidence of 1 in 151 amnions. Also, there were 15 cases of liveborn children with Down syndrome in 10822 liveborn babies, which made an incidence of 1 in 721 liveborns. The total of 1070 pregnancies were with mothers older than 35 years at the time of labor and 5 of 15 liveborn babies with Down syndrome were from mothers belonging to this group. Also, 9464 pregnancies were with mothers aged 18-35 years and in this group there were the last 10 cases of Down syndrome. There were 8 fetuses with Down syndrome, all diagnosed with trisomy 21, and all 8 aborted by choice of the Ethical committee of the Clinical Center Kragujevac. Conclusion. The decision of not having prenatal diagnostics for pregnancies, some by late amniocentesis, some by the decision of the family, resulted in Down syndrome liveborns.