Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on amniocentesis and prenatal diagnosis in a western Chinese city

To evaluate the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on prenatal diagnosis in a western Chinese city. We retrospectively investigated the clinical features of pregnant women underwent amniocentesis and the results of karyotyping and chromosome microarray analysis (CMA) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pre-COVID-19 period (2019), lockdown period (2020–2022), and post-zero-COVID period (January 2023–July 2023) were evaluated and compared. The percentages of pregnant women underwent amniocentesis were 13.6% (3359/24704), 13.3% (6953/52137), and 13.3% (1227/9221) during the pre-COVID-19, lockdown, and post-zero-COVID period, respectively. The average ages of the women underwent amniocentesis were 31.37 ± 5.27, 32.07 ± 5.21, and 32.49 ± 4.96 years ( P < 0.05). The clinical indications for prenatal diagnosis that changed most obviously were advanced maternal age (AMA), fetal ultrasound anomalies (FUA), and abnormal maternal serum screening (MSS) during the three periods. The AMA and FUA increased, whereas the MSS decreased. No statistically significant difference was detected in the proportion of abnormal karyotyping (women underwent amniocentesis) and CMA results (women underwent CMA) across the three periods. The COVID-19 pandemic had a limited impact on prenatal diagnosis in the western Chinese city of Chengdu, except that the age of women underwent amniocentesis increased owing to pregnancy postponement resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.