Special Report: Prenatal Screening Policies in Europe 2010

Introduction Since the setting up of EUROCAT in 1980 there has been a continuous increase in the proportion of congenital malformations that are diagnosed prenatally. EUROCAT studies have shown significant regional differences in prenatal detection rates in Europe. A range of policies have been developed in different countries and in different areas within countries. The availability of different resources, termination of pregnancy laws and social and cultural factors are important issues which vary between countries. With the advances in prenatal screening methods and with improved resolution and expertise at ultrasound scanning the questions of which screening test to use and when to offer ultrasound scans in pregnancy are difficult ones to answer. In a previous report from 2004 we described the prenatal diagnosis policies in European countries. In this report we have updated the information with the policies in place in 2009. One EUROCAT representative from each country has written a chapter describing their national policy for prenatal screening under the four headings: Screening for Down syndrome Indications for prenatal cytogenetic diagnosis Screening for Structural Anomalies by Ultrasound Screening Termination of Pregnancy for Fetal Anomaly Following the country chapters a list of recent EUROCAT publications in the area of prenatal diagnosis are given