The most common reason a physician might recommend that a woman have maternal serum screening and a karyotype analysis is concern that her fetus may have Down syndrome. Go to the OMIM website at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/omim and look up Down syndrome (OMIM 190685).

Look at the 'Mapping' and 'Molecular Genetics' sections and describe what is meant by the Down syndrome critical region (DSCR).