Improved Pregnancy Tests Allow Parents to Discover Birth Defects Earlier

PrenaTest®, a non-invasive molecular genetic blood test, has been developed in Europe. The improved pre-natal test can detect fetal abnormalities like Down Syndrome and Edwards Syndrome in high-risk pregnancies starting at the ninth-week.

Developers note that performing the test at an earlier stage of pregnancy is a smart choice, specifically for mothers at a high risk of their babies developing one of these fetal trisomies.

The test was developed with credit to the advancement of QuantYfeX^TM technology, which the developers of the test, LifeCodexx, uses to measure the amount of cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) in the mother's blood. If the amount of this DNA is four percent during the first few weeks of pregnancy, LifeCodexx can reliably analyze the blood sample. Also, this new technology allows LifeCodexx to notify the physician if the amount of cffDNA is too low, alerting them to take a new blood sample, thus lowering the waiting period for the mother.

Every year 3,000 to 5,000 children are born with Down Syndrome, according to the World Health Organization. The trisomy occurs in one in every 1,000 births.

While there are already several tests available that can detect fetal abnormities, this is the first that can test for trisomies starting at week nine of pregnancy.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that pregnant women of all ages are offered the PrenaTest® option during their prenatal assessment, but that low-risk women or women with multiple pregnancies should opt out of the tests since the effects haven't been evaluated within these groups.