Noninvasive Fetal Aneuploidy Detection for Trisomy 21, 13, and 18

Noninvasive fetal aneuploidy detection technology allows for the detection of fetal genetic conditions, specifically having three chromosomes, a condition called aneuploidy, by analyzing a simple blood sample from the pregnant woman. Dennis Lo and Rossa Chiu researched methods of detection of aneuploidies in the early twenty-first century. Their research has been specifically applied to three trisomies, trisomy twenty-one known as Down syndrome, trisomy eighteen known as Edwards Syndrome, and trisomy thirteen known as Patau Syndrome. Prior to the ability to detect fetal DNA in a pregnant woman’s blood, physicians performed amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling, two techniques that increase the risk of spontaneous abortion. Noninvasive detection of trisomy twenty-one, eighteen, and thirteen technology allows for a more accurate and safer detection of those conditions than methods available before.