Thursday, November 21

Tag: prenatal

Medical

What conditions may noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) screen for and what is it?

Finding out if a fetus has a genetic abnormality at birth is possible using noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT), also known as noninvasive prenatal screening (NIPS). Little DNA fragments that are circulating in a pregnant woman's blood are analyzed by this test. These fragments are known as cell-free DNA (cfDNA) because they are free-floating and not contained within cells, in contrast to most DNA, which is located inside a cell's nucleus. These tiny pieces, which are typically composed of fewer than 200 base pairs (the building blocks of DNA), are produced as cells divide, release their constituent parts into the circulation, and die. Read More: nipt A combination of the mother's cells and the placenta's cells make up the mother's bloodstream during pregnancy. The tissue in the ut...