RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN NON-INVASIVE PRENATAL DIAGNOSIS AND TESTING

Abstract

The ability to obtain fetal material that could be used for prenatal genetic diagnosis without requirement for an invasive test was a watershed moment in antenatal care. Cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) was identified in the maternal plasma by Lo and colleagues in 19971and despite being technically challenging, non-invasive tests for fetal sex determination, fetal rhesus D (RHD) genotyping, some single gene disorders and the major aneuploidies are now being offered in clinical practice throughout the world2. Progress continues at pace and recent developments in next generation sequencing (NGS) are driving significant advances in research and in the clinical application of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) and diagnosis (NIPD) (Table 1).