false postives on AFP?

My doctor just called (right before a holiday weekend - to ruin things for me) and told me that my AFP test came back with a possible positive for spina bfida. I'm a wreck!!!!!!!!!! And of course, not a single office is open till Monday. How can they expect me to wait till Monday and enjoy Easter - are they nuts?!!
Did anyone else get a false positive for this and everything worked out OK?

Re: false postives on AFP?

I heard that false positive are very common...Do not worry just yet... go for follow-up testing....

Re: false postives on AFP?

don't know much about it

Re: false postives on AFP?

Posted by CAJ

I heard that false positive are very common...Do not worry just yet... go for follow-up testing....

Re: false postives on AFP?

I go for this next week

Re: false postives on AFP?

A friend of mine took the test and it came back postive for Down Syndrome...she was a wreck the whole pregnancy and her son was born perfect! as a matter of fact she is prego right now again...and she declined the test!! because of too many false postives!

Re: false postives on AFP?

Re: false postives on AFP?

i have heard of false positives linked to poor timing of the test (don't know what the variables include).

had the test come back questionable for us, i personally would have gotten an amnio.

Re: false postives on AFP?

I am going to assume this is serum AFP and it is the first test and it will be repeated?

I found this:
A first elevated test may be repeated because as many as 30 percent of moderately elevated MSAFP results will be below the threshold level upon repeating the test and such findings are not associated with an increased frequency of false-negative NTD diagnoses

Try to have a nice holiday!
Good luck!

Re: false postives on AFP?

My results with my 1st PG, was I had a 1-4 chance of spina bifida amongst other things. the results were 100% dead wrong. Then my cousin had hers a week later, SAME numbers as mine almost...HEr son is 100% healthy.

LAst week my SIL had an amnio because they scared the living crap out of her, telling her how bad her AFP results were.

Her baby girl is 100% fine.

So 3 examples of bad bad results of babies who had NO abnormalities.

My SIL's Dr said the false positive rate is HIGHER then the true positive rate for certain people at certain times.

I would IGNORE it. You have a better chance of getting hit my lightening then those results being true.

Have faith!!!

Praying for you to try and get through this

Message edited 4/12/2006 7:21:41 PM.

Re: false postives on AFP?

I'm sure nothing we say will ease your mind, but I do believe that there's a high rate of false positives- something like 20%.

Message edited 4/12/2006 7:19:33 PM.

Re: false postives on AFP?

There is a VERY high false positive rate with the AFP test, which is why I will never have it doen again. Mine came back positive when I was PG with my son...I went for genetic counseling and was a nercous wreck...he was healthy as a horse.
I know it's hard, but try not to stress...this is VERY common

Re: false postives on AFP?

Posted by CAJ

I heard that false positive are very common...Do not worry just yet... go for follow-up testing....

Re: false postives on AFP?

I don't know why doctors do this? I got a call on Christmas Eve that my labs from my physical showed elevated levels in all my liver tests and they were concerned and needed to do additional testing. Of course the offices were closed a few days for the holidays. (everything turned out ok)

Back to the point, as everyone has mentioned there is a documented high rate of false positives. Try your best not too stress and enjoy your Holiday!!!

We're all praying for you!!

Re: false postives on AFP?

Thank you all so much for your words of support and encouragement - it makes me feel better.
I will keep you posted

Re: false postives on AFP? UPDATE

Although the tech could not say (the doctor must interepret the results) the exact results on the advanced sono we had done yesterday, she did say, "Alll looks good to me, all is forming perfectly on the spine - enjoy your easter". we are SOOO HAPPY
I'm such a glass is half empty person that I will save my complete relief until the doctor tells us all is good. But for now, we can rest. We also got an awesome shot of our little bean's spine and adorable butt
Thanks for all your supportive words yesterday!

Re: false postives on AFP?

Yay!

Re: false postives on AFP?

YEY!

Message edited 4/15/2006 9:33:29 AM.

Re: false postives on AFP?

So glad you got great results back!

So many women skip the AFP test for this very reason. Like pregnant women don't have enough to worry about!!

Re: false postives on AFP?

With my son and daughter they told me I tested borderline for Spina bifida and they did a level II ultrasound with both and they were both perfectly fine. There are very high rates of false positives. Try not to worry to much although going through it the first time for me was torture the second time I knew what was happening. Hang in there I'm sure all will be well.

Re: false postives on AFP?

Re: false postives on AFP?

They did this to my mom with my sister, they told her that my sister was going to have spina bifida due the the results, and when she got a second opinion it turned out that they read the results wrong. If I remember correctly, the AFP test can be wrong if the dates are off.