Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of fetal anomalies in recent 10 years and explore the effective methods of early diagnosis and treatment.
Methods: The clinical and pathological data of 116 pregnant women who underwent induced abortion in the second trimester due to fetal anomalies 1998 - 2007 were analyzed retrospectively.
Results: The fetal anomaly rate in the period 2003 - 2997 was 8.7 per thousand, significantly higher than that in the period 1998 - 2002 (3.1 per thousand, P < 0.001). The diagnostic methods of fetal anomalies used during the period 2003 - 2007 did not show significant differences compared with those used during the period 1998 - 2002. The gestational week when the fetal anomalies were detected in 2002 - 2007 was 19.3 weeks, not significantly preceded compared with that during 1998 - 2002 (22.4 weeks, P > 0.05). The top 5 fetal anomalies with high incidence rates were Down' syndrome, anencephalus, lip/palate cleft, fatal cystic hygroma of the neck, and cardiac anomalies. There were 30 cases of advanced maternal age over 35 years, 60.0% of whose fetuses showed chromosome abnormality.
Conclusion: The incidence of fetal anomalies increases in recent years. The risk of fetal anomalies is high in the pregnant women in elder age. Pregnancy in advanced maternal age show high risk to occur fetal anomaly. Better approaches to diagnose fetal anomaly earlier are still to be found.