“A blood test for pregnant women may be able to diagnose trisomy 21, which leads to Down’s syndrome, and other chromosomal abnormalities in the fetus, according to a preliminary study.
The new test yielded a false positive rate under 2% for trisomy 21 with a detection rate of 66%, said Ravinder Dhallan, M.D., of Ravgen Inc., here, and colleagues. Their company-sponsored, preliminary study of 60 pregnant women was published online in the Feb. 3 issue of The Lancet.” (MedPage Today)
The test is not yet commercially available, and take note that the detection rate is only around 2/3 although there is a negligible false positive rate. But it is far safer than amniocentesis as a first screen.
