New DNA Test to Identify Down Syndrome in Pregnancy Is Ready for Clinical Use, Brown University Study

A new DNA-based prenatal blood test that can strikingly reduce the number of risky diagnostic procedures needed to identify a pregnancy with Down syndrome is ready to be introduced into clinical practice. The test can be offered as early as 10 weeks of pregnancy to women who have been identified as being at high risk for Down syndrome. These are the results of an international, multicenter study published online on October 17 in the journal Genetics in Medicine. The study, the largest and most comprehensive done to date, examined almost 1,700 pregnancies at high risk of chromosomal abnormalities, 212 of which were affected by Down syndrome.