Clinic introduces advanced prenatal screening for down syndrome, others

EHA Clinics, a Nigeria-based integrated health care provider, has introduced an advanced screening for pregnant women.

The screening estimates the risk of a foetus with Down’s syndrome (T21), Edward’s syndrome (T18) and Patau’s syndrome(T13).

EHA Clinica disclosed this in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday. The statement issued by Mary Yakubu, Chief of Staff of EHA Clinics, was made available to the Newsmen.

The advanced screening is known as the IONA® Care test, a non-invasive prenatal test service carried out on a small blood sample taken from the mother’s arm with no risk of miscarriage.

Yakubu said this is an ultrasound scan to measure the nuchal translucency, combined with a blood test.

“This is less accurate than NIPT, detecting about 85 per cent of babies with Down’s syndrome,’’ she said.

According to reports, that the nuchal translucency test measures the thickness of the nuchal fold, which is an area of tissue at the back of an unborn baby’s neck.

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The statement noted that the IONA® test, however, has a higher detection rate than the combined test.

It said the IONA® test is also able to exclude false positives which occur when the test reports that the baby is at a high risk of having Down’s syndrome, but is actually unaffected.

Clarifying further, it maintained that the IONA® test is much better at ensuring the babies identified were truly high risk.

Accordingly, this allows the doctor to only refer the mother for the invasive test when it is highly likely that the baby is affected by trisomy (a chromosomal condition characterised by an additional chromosome).

“This means fewer pregnant women will undergo unnecessary invasive follow-up procedures such as amniocentesis (medical evaluation) or CVS which can be stressful, painful, and may carry a small risk of miscarriage.’’

Commenting on the introduction of the IONA® test, the statement noted that Dr. Anthonia Hananiya, Chief Medical Officer of EHA Clinics, said that the IONA® test provided a competitive high-quality offering.

She said this was due to the fast turnaround time, enabling some results to be turned around in as fast as eight to 10 days.

“We are also open to partnerships with leading healthcare service providers in the nation. This will address the growing demand for access to affordable, high-quality healthcare in the country,’’ Hananiya said.

The statement described EHA Clinics as a world-class integrated health care service provider that is focused on improving healthcare delivery in Nigeria.