Maternal biochemical serum screening for Down syndrome in pregnancy with human immunodeficiency virus infection

Abstract

Objective: To estimate the influence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and antiretroviral therapy on maternal serum markers levels and the false-positive rate with biochemical maternal serum screening for Down syndrome.

Methods: We performed a 1:1 matched case-control study comparing 132 HIV-infected women with single pregnancy to controls selected among non-HIV-infected women matched on geographical origin and fetal sex.

Results: Of HIV-infected women, 47.7% were receiving antiretroviral therapy. Groups did not differ in multiples of the median (MoM) levels of total human chorionic gonadotrophin. The MoM alpha fetoprotein level did not differ between total HIV-infected women and control women but was significantly lower for untreated HIV-positive women compared with control women (0.91 compared with 1.03 MoM, P<.01) and compared with treated HIV-positive women (0.91 compared with 1.18 MoM, P<.01). The false-positive rate of biochemical screening did not differ between groups.

Conclusion: Untreated HIV infection is associated with lower maternal serum alpha fetoprotein levels. Nevertheless, the false-positive rate of double-marker second-trimester Down syndrome serum screening did not appear to be affected in our sample of HIV-infected women, whether women were receiving antiretroviral therapy at the time of the test or not.