Search

Objectives: To evaluate the performance of noninvasive prenatal screening (NIPS) for the fetal common aneuploidy screening in twin pregnancies., Methods: The data of 5469 women with twin pregnancies were collected in this retrospective observational study between January 2017 and December 2018. Patients underwent NIPS as first-line screening or after standard serum screening for fetal aneuploidy. The performance of NIPS was examined, and a regression analysis was performed to investigate testing failure in cases of low fetal fraction., Results: In this study, 2231 (40.8%) patients opted for NIPS as the primary prenatal screening test, and 3238 (59.2%) opted for serum screening, including 440 patients who opted for NIPS after serum screening. Among the 2671 pregnancies with available NIPS outcomes, 11 cases of aneuploidy were identified, seven of trisomy 21 and four of sex chromosome aneuploidy (SCA). The sensitivity and specificity for trisomy 21 were 100% (95% CI, 56.1-100.0%) and 100% (95% CI, 99.8-100.0%), respectively. The positive predictive value (PPV) for SCA was 40.0% (95% CI, 13.7-72.6%). No false negatives were found, with a negative predictive value (NPV) of 100% (95% CI, 99.8-100.0%) in total. In 32 pregnancies who failed NIPS test without available NIPS outcomes due to low fetal fraction, the regression analysis demonstrated that increasing BMI and assisted reproductive technology treatment were significant independent predictors., Conclusions: NIPS is a high-performing routine primary prenatal screening test in twin pregnancies, with a high PPV and low false positive rate for detecting trisomy 21. It is also useful to identify common sex chromosome aneuploidies in twin pregnancies, with similar performance to that reported in singleton pregnancy.

This paper is aimed to analyze the correlation between serum free testosterone (FT) and total testosterone (TT) to acquire a cutoff about using total testosterone to diagnose hyperandrogenism in Chengdu females. We investigated 1854 women by cluster sampling method, detected their serum FT levels and TT levels, scored relative items, analyzed the correlation and made the ROC curve to get a cutoff of TT levels. Serum FT had a linear correlation with serum TT (r = 0.597, r2 = 0.356, P < 0.001). The cutoff value was 0.635 ng/mL. The specificity and sensitivity were 76.3% and 77.24%, respectively. No correlation found between serum FT and Ferriman-Gallway Score (P = 0.392). Positive correlations were seen between serum FT and Plewig-Kligman Score (r = 0.137, P < 0.001), serum TT and Ferriman-Gallway Score (r = 0.069, P = 0.003) and serum TT and Plewig-Kligman Score (r = 0.092, P < 0.001). There is a linear correlation between serum FT and TT. We can diagnose hyperandrogenism according to the serum TT cutoff value (0.635 ng/mL). Its clinical symptoms are not paralleled with the biochemical test results.

It is the intent of this investigation to gain an insight into the relationship of serum total adiponectin with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and insulin resistance. Fifty-eight PCOS patients were enrolled (29 with high serum insulin level and 29 without), at the same time, 29 non-PCOS women with normal weight were included as control. The influencing factors of total adiponectin, PCOS and insulin resistance were analyzed. The serum total adiponectin of PCOS patients and all participants were found to be negatively related to waist hip ratio (r = -0.39, r = -0.36) and InHOMA-IR (r = -0.53, r = -0.45), respectively. Adiponectin was not a protective factor of PCOS (P > 0.1), but it was that of PCOS-insulin resistance (OR = 0.81; 95% CI: 0.67-0.97; P = 0.02). LH/FSH (OR = 1.51; 95% CI: 1.16-1.96; P = 0.01) and InHOMA-IR (OR = 1.26; 95% CI: 1.10-1.44; P = 0.01) were risk factors of PCOS, and waist hip ratio was that of PCOS-insulin resistance (OR = 8.57; 95% CI, 2.14-34.30, P = 0.01). Adiponectin might influence fasting insulin and InHOMA-IR (B = -0.22, P = 0.001; B = -0.02, P = 0.002). These data signify that adiponectin is not directly related with PCOS, but it is related with PCOS-HL Adiponectin might participate in the pathophysiologic mechanism of PCOS by influencing insulin sensitivity.