[Progress in prenatal diagnosis].

Prenatal diagnosis is primarily the task of the obstetrician and clinical geneticist, but it must concern the pediatrician as well. It may give advance warning of postnatal problems and yield information that is valuable in the care of the newborn. Moreover, the pediatrician may be called upon to judge the prognosis of a child with a prenatally detected anomaly and prenatal therapy might be considered. Recent progress in prenatal diagnosis concerns sonography, including fetal blood sampling and biopsy; early detection of neural tube defects by alpha-fetoprotein and acetylcholinesterase determination (ACHE test); first trimester diagnosis of chromosome anomalies and inborn errors of metabolism; and prenatal DNA analysis. Technical progress in prenatal diagnosis improves the reliability of prognosis and genetic counselling, but also adds to existing ethical problems and may create new ones.