| ■ Scientists Developing Blood Test for Down Syndrome | 2010.07.02 |
| Dutch researchers say they're close to developing a blood test to determine if a pregnant woman's unborn child has Down syndrome. They say their test, which would reveal problems in fetal DNA and could be used as early as six to eight weeks of pregnancy, could be offered to high-risk women instead of an amniocentesis test, which carries a risk of miscarriage, BBC News reported. If further study proves it's accurate, the test could be available within a few years, the researchers told delegates at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology. A number of labs worldwide are working on different types of prenatal diagnostic tests for Down syndrome, said Professor Stephen Robson, spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in England. "It is the holy grail of prenatal diagnosis to try and find a reliable method of diagnosing Down syndrome and other chromosome abnormalities without doing invasive testing," he told BBC News. "This is another technique that could offer the potential to diagnose Down syndrome non-invasively but it's important to emphasize that it is some years away." |