Screening for cystic fibrosis Screening before pregnancy is preferred

BMJ 1994;309:339-340 (30 July)

Letters

Screening for cystic fibrosis Screening before pregnancy is preferred

EDITOR, - The paper by Sean Livingstone and colleagues producesfurther evidence that the antenatal context provides a pragmaticanswer to the debate about a model for cystic fibrosis screening.¹We wish to make two comments about the paper.

Firstly, the authors suggest (in table II) that a majority ofwomen, whether entering the trial or not, preferred screeningduring pregnancy. This is not borne out by the results theypresent since, although small numbers are involved, 60.5% ofthe non-participants preferred screening before pregnancy, comparedwith 46% of the participants. A previous survey of pregnantwomen found that 98% preferred screening before pregnancy and69% would accept carrier screening during pregnancy.² Thereis actually substantial interest in prepregnancy screening.This is signficant because the acceptability of screening tothe general population is likely to alter with the improvingclinical picture for cystic fibrosis³ as well as gene therapy.

Secondly, . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Antenatal screening for cystic fibrosis: a trial of the couple model: J Livingstone, R A Axton, A Gilfillan, M Mennie, M Compton, W A Liston, A A Calder, A J Gordon, and D J H Brock
BMJ 1994 308: 1459-1462. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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Super, M, Schwarz, M J, Malone, G, Roberts, T, Haworth, A, Dermody, G, Brun, J, Magnay, D (1994). Screening for cystic fibrosis Should begin with cascade screening. BMJ 309: 877c-878 [Full text]