Second-Trimester Maternal Serum Alpha-Fetoprotein Levels and the Risk of Subsequent Fetal Death

• Published in: The New England journal of medicine Vol. 325; no. 1; pp. 6 - 10
• Main Authors: Waller, D. Kim, Lustig, Linda S, Cunningham, George C, Golbus, Mitchell S, Hook, Ernest B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston, MA Massachusetts Medical Society 04-07-1991
• Subjects: Abortion; Adolescent; Adult; Age; alpha-Fetoproteins - analysis; Biological and medical sciences; Birth defects; Case-Control Studies; Congenital diseases; Death; Defects; Female; Fetal Death - diagnosis; Fetuses; Gestation; Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics; Health risk assessment; Humans; Hypertension - blood; Infants; Infarction; Infarction - blood; Management. Prenatal diagnosis; Medical sciences; Menstruation; Obstetrics; Odds Ratio; Placenta; Placenta - blood supply; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications, Cardiovascular - blood; Pregnancy Trimester, Second; Pregnancy. Fetus. Placenta; prenatal diagnosis; Risk; Womens health; α-Fetoprotein; Second trimester; Pregnancy; Human; Fetal diseases; Risk factor; Biological marker; Female; Fetus; Death; α-Fetoprotein; In utero
• ISSN: 0028-4793; 1533-4406
• DOI: 10.1056/NEJM199107043250102

FETAL deaths at ≥20 weeks of gestation now constitute a major proportion of perinatal deaths in the United States, and in some states the fetal death rate is reported to equal or exceed the neonatal death rate.
1
For this reason, increased attention is being directed to the early detection of pregnancies in which there is a risk of fetal death and to the development of strategies to prevent fetal death in these pregnancies.
2
This study examined the relation between secondtrimester measurements of maternal serum alpha-fetoprotein and subsequent fetal death. Screening of serum alpha-fetoprotein levels is offered to pregnant women primarily . . .