1988 to 2023: 35 years of achievement in antenatal screening

αlpha has undergone significant development since it was first released in 1988.

αlpha adopts latest scientific, medical and technical advances in screening for Down’s syndrome and neural tube defects and now includes screening for other disorders including trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome), trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome) and pre-eclampsia. αlpha updates are included in the fee paid for αlpha so that there is no financial barrier to using the latest version.

Timeline

The following timeline illustrates some of the advances:

1988

Triple test and AFP screening for neural tube defects

1993

Identifies high risk of trisomy 18 using Triple test

1995

Expected local screening performance for trisomy 21


Empirical validation plots of risk

1998

Combined test

2003

Integrated Test


Sonographer-specific nuchal translucency medians


Identifies pregnancies at high risk of Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome

2006

SURUSS study parameters


Nasal bone


Twin chorionicity

2008

Sequential Integrated screening


Avoidance of recurrent false positives

2011

Combined and Integrated test for trisomy 13


Ductus venosus blood flow


Pre-eclampsia screening

2013

First trimester placental growth factor

2015

Reflex DNA screening


Sequential Integrated screening for trisomy 18 and 13

2016

Expected local screening performance for trisomy 18 and 13

2017

Reflex DNA screening result based on combining DNA and biochemical measurements