The Lifesciences Magazine

  In Denmark, women can now get a new blood test to find out if their unborn child has genetic problems early on in pregnancy. But it has brought up moral issues. For many years, researchers have been trying to come up with a less invasive way to check for genetic abnormalities in foetuses. Chorionic villus sampling (CVS) is currently performed on pregnant women whose unborn children are at a high risk of developing these disorders. A needle must be placed through the mother’s stomach for the CVS placenta test. The most accurate test for chromosomal disorders including Down syndrome, this treatment has a 0.5% chance of miscarriage but might be painful for the mom. But now, scientists from Denmark’s Aarhus University Hospital have discovered a new technique that is virtually as accurate as the placenta test. This innovative technique, known as EVITA, is a type of blood test that separates foetal cells from the blood of the pregnant woman. From the 200 million cells in the woman’s b...