Simple blood test can reveal Down syndrome in pregnancy

[jimmy olsen]

Interesting.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41937689/ns/health-pregnancy/

Simple blood test can reveal Down syndrome in pregnancy
Screening test could hit market within a year


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By MALCOLM RITTER
The Associated Press
updated 3/6/2011 1:44:01 PM ET 2011-03-06T18:44:01

NEW YORK — Scientists in Europe report they were able to diagnose Down syndrome prenatally by giving a simple blood test to pregnant women, an approach that might one day help them avoid the more extensive procedure used now to detect the condition.

The preliminary report published online Sunday in the journal Nature Medicine is the latest of several recent studies that suggest scientists can spot Down syndrome through fetal DNA that has been shed into the mother's bloodstream.

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Down syndrome, which results in cognitive delays, is caused by having an extra copy of a particular chromosome. Currently, pregnant women get blood tests and ultrasound to find out if the fetus is at risk for Down syndrome. For a firm diagnosis, doctors take a sample of amniotic fluid or the placenta.

Those sampling procedures involve a small risk of miscarriage. A reliable diagnostic blood test also could give an answer earlier than the standard tests.

Several research teams have published studies suggesting that analyzing the mother's blood can detect Down syndrome in a fetus. There's no commercial test available yet, but at least one company hopes to introduce one in the U.S. within about a year.

In the latest report, scientists in Cyprus, Greece and England said that in a blind test, they correctly identified 14 Down syndrome cases and 26 normal fetuses.

They said a bigger study is needed to confirm the usefulness of their approach.

[CountDeMoney]

[Neil]

Good.  Abortions for damaged babies is a wise policy.

[Caliga]

Abortions for some, miniature Canadian flags for others.

[Brazen]

Great, now I can pop out some old lady babies.

[Slargos]

Too late for grumbler, I'm afraid. 

[Caliga]

I was expecting the first "Languishites as retards" joke to be about Tim, since he did (of course) start the thread.

[Slargos]

I was expecting the first "Languishites as retards" joke to be about Tim, since he did (of course) start the thread.

I was going to go in the general direction of all Languishites but the implications about myself worried me. 

[Eddie Teach]

I'd say there are some pretty worrisome implications about yourself from grumbler having Downs...

[derspiess]

We did the blood test + ultrasound thing for both and it always bugged me that the tests only gave a relatively vague probability %.  Would be nice to have something more conclusive.  We wouldn't have aborted in any case, but I'd definitely prefer to know in advance.

My wife's youngest sister has Down's but IIRC it was due to her mom being well into her 40s when she had her.

[MadImmortalMan]

Pete Rose disapproves of spicy's avatar.

[Eddie Teach]

Speiss probably disapproves of Rose's gambling. 

[derspiess]

Speiss probably disapproves of Rose's gambling. 

Absolutely, though I'm with the yokels here who think it shouldn't keep him out of Cooperstown.

[Jaron]

I've never seen anything but white babies be mongoloids. In fact, my stepfather's nephew, or my step-cousin I guess you might say, has down syndrome.

[Eddie Teach]

What about Mongolian babies?