How much do you know about carrier screening?

As prenatal genetic screening options expand, physicians face questions about which screening is best for individual patients. Test your knowledge about new expanded carrier screening and what role it can play in clinical practice. Casting a wider net Genomics is part of precision medicine, the science of crafting treatments to fit a patient’s particular genes, environment and lifestyle. Unlike traditional one-size-fits-all treatments, precision medicine tools enable clinicians to better understand a patient’s health and conditions, and better determine what treatments will be most effective for that particular person. Carrier screening provides information about reproductive risks by identifying genetic variations in parents that usually do not affect their own health but could result in diseases in their children. Results allow patients to consider their reproductive options. Traditional prenatal screening detects about a dozen conditions that are more prevalent in certain ethnicities. In contrast, new expanded carrier screening can test for more than 100 genetic conditions and isn’t limited to only certain ethnicities. As screening becomes available to more patients, physicians should consider additional factors and discuss them with patients before and after screening. For example, testing for more diseases, especially those that are less common, can lead to uncertainty about residual risks and clinical outcomes when data on those diseases is limited. Le...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news