Question
A pregnant woman is inquiring about the results of her prenatal screening report for Down syndrome, where the human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) test result shows a MOM value of 2.60, which is higher than the standard 2.5 MOM, and she is puzzled by this result.
Answer
Medical professionals explain that a higher hCG value indicates a higher risk of the fetus having Down syndrome; a lower alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) value increases the risk. The Down syndrome screening results can only provide probabilities and cannot make a definitive diagnosis. If the results are abnormal, amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling should be conducted to determine the fetus’s health status.