New Down’s syndrome blood test 'more reliable'

Conclusion The current study suggests that screening for trisomies 13, 18, and 21 using a DNA based maternal blood test may identify similar numbers of affected foetuses to the current screening test. However, the new screening test appears to be better at ruling out the condition in women with normal pregnancies, this means that fewer women would be offered unnecessary invasive diagnostic testing. There are a few important points to note: Not all women in this study had given birth when the study was published, and these babies will need to be assessed to make sure that no cases of trisomy were missed. If this test does become more widely used, it is unlikely to be used on its own to screen for these trisomies. It is more likely to be used as part of an overall screening strategy for these conditions. For example, combined testing could be used in cases where the new test did not provide a result, and ultrasound is likely to continue to be used to identify those foetuses with abnormalities. It will be important to assess the overall potential effect of whatever screening strategy is proposed. The current test only looked at women at 10 weeks into their pregnancy, other studies would be needed to determine whether the test performed similarly at other stages in pregnancy. These three conditions are relatively rare, and therefore only a few women in this study had them. Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings, and the newspapers suggest that such ...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Genetics/stem cells Medical practice Pregnancy/child Source Type: news