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AFP
Alpha-fetoprotein Screening (AFP)/Enhanced AFP
By Sharon Waldrop
Dr. Jacob Canick is the lab director at the division of prenatal and special testing for the department of pathology at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island. The facility is the primary teaching affiliate of the Brown University School of Medicine for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics. Canick explains that the AFP3 test is a triple-marker test, checking the protein hormones AFP, estriol and HCG. He and his team of researchers have developed a four-marker test, the AFP Quad test, which can also detect high levels of a fourth protein hormone called Inhibin A.
"Inhibin A and HCG protein hormone levels tend to be high and ASP and estriol protein hormone levels tend to be low in the event of a fetus with Down syndrome," Canick says. Please note that although the new ability to check this fourth hormone increases the accuracy of the test, an abnormal result may not be a sure sign of fetal abnormalities. The AFP Quad test is not yet available in all areas.
Steve and Marian King from Long Beach, Calif., were delighted to find out that they were expecting their third child. The good news came at a difficult time for the couple. Marian's mother was terminally ill and Marian spent the first several weeks of her pregnancy at her mother's bedside.
The couple received an abnormal AFP test result two weeks after Marian's mother passed away. Marian and Steve were referred to a genetic counselor and were fortunate enough to get an appointment the very next day. The plan was that the counselor would meet with Marian and Steve for an hour, then an ultrasound would be performed to view the fetus. Within a few moments into the ultrasound, Steve asked, "Do I see two heads?" Five months later, Marian gave birth to healthy twin boys.
