Find out about the top features in Alpha
Accuracy of Alpha in Antenatal Screening
An audit of a large routine screening programme
An audit of a large routine Down’s syndrome screening programme was carried out to: (i) Demonstrate the value of the Validation Plot facility in αlpha for determining the accuracy of the Down’s syndrome risks calculated by the αlpha software and (ii) Determine the accuracy of αlpha in estimating Down’s syndrome screening performance.
Reflex DNA Screening
Results of the implementation project
An implementation project for reflex DNA screening using αlpha software has been completed and published in Genetics in Medicine (Read here). The screening performance is close to previous modelled estimates. Reflex DNA screening compared with universal DNA screening (sometimes called non-invasive prenatal testing, NIPT) provides, at a lower cost, a substantially lower false positive rate (and hence reduced anxiety) for a small loss in detection rate and avoids the problem of failed DNA tests. Further information about the cost of reflex DNA screening is given in this article and at screening-cost-calculator.com
Integrated and sequential screening
95% detection rate for 0.6% false positive rate
The integrated test is a method of screening for Down's syndrome which uses measurements obtained during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy to provide a single estimate of the risk of having a pregnancy with Down's syndrome.
Half a Century of Progress in Antenatal Screening for Down’s Syndrome
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Half a Century of Progress in Antenatal Screening for Down's Syndrome Professor Sir Nicholas Wald FRS FRCP (Managing Director of Logical Medical Systems and Honorary Professor of Preventive Medicine, University College London) presents a talk on "Half a Century of Progress in Antenatal Screening for Down's Syndrome".
Click here to view the talk.
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Selected questions and answers
It is often thought that a false-positive rate (FPR) of 5% is somehow 'correct', because a 5% FPR is commonly used in the literature as a standard when comparing the performance of different screening tests. However, the correct FPR for your population will not necessarily be the same as the published estimates. It will depend on a number of factors, including the age distribution, which may differ from the age distribution of the standard populations used in scientific papers.
αlpha provides a broad range of quality control and monitoring features, to help you determine the performance expected from your screening programme, and ensure that the expected screening performance is achieved. For more details on the different monitoring features click here.
αlpha provides two methods of extracting data from the database. The first is Data Transfer which provides a very quick and easy way to get access to the raw data. Secondly a facility called Analyze-it which exports data directly to a Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet as well as other well known formats.
