title: Non-invasive prenatal diagnosis: implications for antenatal diagnosis and management of high-risk pregnancies.
abstract: There has been a huge effort in the last 2-3 decades to develop non-invasive prenatal diagnosis to avoid the risks to the fetus caused by invasive procedures. Obtaining fetal nucleic material for molecular analysis without the need of invasive procedures has been a goal of prenatal diagnosis for many years; this is now been made possible by the use of non-cellular fetal nucleic acids circulating in maternal blood. The placenta is the primary source of these nucleic acids, raising the possibility that they could be a marker for pregnancy complications resulting from placental disease/dysfunction such as pre-eclampsia and fetal growth restriction. If so, these markers might be able to identify cases at risk, predict disease and/or its severity or allow early diagnosis. This has the potential to allow improvements in the management of complicated pregnancies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Fetal Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. medhat.alberry@bristol.ac.uk
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Alberry
authors.forename: P W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Soothill
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D005312:Fetal Blood; D005315:Fetal Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D010920:Placenta / Q000473:pathology; D011247:Pregnancy; D018566:Pregnancy, High-Risk; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis / Q000379:methods*; D012313:RNA / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA