The UVA Medical Center participated in an international clinical trial for a new and more accurate method of testing whether or not an unborn baby has Down syndrome.
“What’s different about this test is that it has a very, very low false-positive or false-negative rate,” Dr. Devereaux Saller told NBC29, adding that the new test is 98.6 percent accurate. Saller is director of maternal-fetal medicine at UVA and led the study at the UVA site.
This new method also promises to be safer than past procedures by relying on a simple blood test rather than requiring of a sample of amniocentesis—a technique that may occasionally yield false results or lead to a miscarriage.
UVA genetic counselor Karen Ventura told NBC29 that the less invasive method is safer for expecting mothers who don’t want to take “unnecessary risks” with a chorionic villus or amniocentesis sampling.
Twenty-six other centers worldwide took part in the clinical study, and the new test is now available from the biotechnology company Sequenom.
According to the Medical Center’s press release, the test can be offered as early as 10 weeks into pregnancy.
The study was published in the journal Genetics and Medicine and can be found here.
