UK scientists develop new test to confirm Down’s syndrome

Scientists claim that they have developed a new safer blood test that will help to tell pregnant women if their unborn babies have Down’s syndrome.

According to PNAS journal reports, the test of DNA evidence in 18 pregnant women’s blood correctly recognized nine cases of Down’s syndrome.

The test was conducted by the researchers from Stanford University and now they want a larger-scale test. In babies with Down’s syndrome there is an extra copy of chromosome 21 that becomes the cause of physical and intellectual impairments.In this test called “shotgun sequencing test” the researchers identified and counted those fragments of DNA and it was sensitive enough to detect even the smallest increase in amount of chromosome 21.

The new test precisely recognized the chromosomal abnormalities in the sample of 18 pregnant women who were specially selected for this purpose. The abnormal number of chromosomes caused nine Down’s syndrome cases and two other inherited disorders in among these 18 women.

Dr. Stephen Quake, who led the study, said: “we want to repeat our study in a larger number of women, but we are quite certain that it will be used in hospitals routinely just after few years.”

Amniocentesis is one of the current ways to confirm the Down’s syndrome in which a needle is inserted in the womb to take the sample within the womb.