UK screening for cystic fibrosis - costs not prohibitive
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Economic arguments against antenatal cystic fibrosis screening are not valid, claims Dr H Cuckle of the Centre for Reproduction Growth and Development at the University of Leeds, UK. Cystic fibrosis screening would not be "much more expensive than other established services, such as maternal serum screening for Down's syndrome," he says (BMJ, December 2nd). The researchers considered the costs of pre- and post-test counselling, parental DNA testing (including both sequential carrier testing and couple carrier testing) and other prenatal diagnostics. Their analysis assumed that all women have two pregnancies, 20% have missing information from previous pregnancies and that the proportion of women changing partners between pregnancies is 20%.