The report of a large collaborative study designed to identify the most effective, safe and cost-effective method of antenatal screening for Down's syndrome, using nuchal translucency, first and second trimester serum and urine markers, and age, in various combinations. Results were based on about 47,000 pregnancies, including 101 pregnancies with Down' syndrome.

The full report, executive summary and editorial are available on the Journal of Medical Screening website free of charge. Click on the PDF to download the section required in PDF format.

You can also obtain the full report and the executive summary from the website of the NCCHTA (National Coordinating Centre for Health Technology Assessment). Click on Browse a list of all published HTA reports, select Search Publications, enter SURUSS in the search box, and Press Go. Click on the title of the report for details.

A figure is given here which shows the false positive rates for an 85% detection rate from SURUSS and FASTER (see reference below).  The FASTER study is similar to SURUSS and produced similar results with an identical pattern of estimates of screening performance for the different screening tests.

Malone FD, Canick JA, Ball RH, Nyberg DA, Comstock CH, Bukowski R, Berkowitz RL, Gross SJ, Dugoff L, Craigo SD, Timor-Tritsch IE, Carr SR, Wolfe HM, Dukes K, Bianchi DW, Rudnicka AR, Hackshaw AK, Lambert-Messerlian G, Wald NJ, D'Alton ME; First- and Second-Trimester Evaluation of Risk (FASTER) Research Consortium. First-trimester or second-trimester screening, or both, for Down’s syndrome. N Engl J Med 2005;353:2001-11