MONDAY, March 23 (HealthDay News) -- Women pregnant with twins who undergo amniocentesis may face a higher risk of pregnancy loss, according to research published in the March issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Alison G. Cahill, M.D., of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues analyzed data from a cohort of 1,934 women with twin pregnancies who had a sonographic examination during a 16-year span.
Those who chose amniocentesis (311) were more likely to have pregnancy loss (3.2 percent versus 1.4 percent), the investigators found. Amniocentesis was significantly associated with pregnancy loss after adjustment for a variety of factors, including advanced maternal age, chorionicity and fetal anomaly seen on ultrasound (adjusted odds ratio, 2.9). The attributable risk of pregnancy loss before 24 weeks of gestation following mid-trimester amniocentesis in such pregnancies is 1.8 percent, the authors report.
"We found the procedure-related pregnancy loss rate from mid-trimester amniocentesis in twin pregnancies to be higher than that recently published for singleton pregnancies and to be distinct from an empiric risk estimate that is obtained by simply doubling the loss rate for singleton pregnancies. These findings can be used by clinicians when counseling patients regarding their options for antenatal aneuploidy and genetic diagnosis and the associated risks," the authors write.
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