Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) in pregnancies with trisomy 21, 18 and 13 performed in a public setting – factors of importance for correct interpretation of results

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Tanja S. Hartwig
  • Louise Ambye
  • Lene Werge
  • Martin Kenneth Weiergang
  • Pernille Nørgaard
  • Steen Sørensen
  • Jørgensen, Finn Stener

Objectives: We have established an open source platform for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) based on massively parallel whole-genome sequencing in a public setting. The objective of this study was to investigate factors of importance for correct interpretation of NIPT results to ensure a high sensitivity and specificity. Study design: This investigation is a retrospective case-control study performed in a public NIPT center. The study included 108 aneuploid cases and 165 euploid controls. MPS was performed on circulating cell-free DNA in maternal blood. The pipeline included automated library preparation and sequencing on a HiSeq1500 (Illumina). The software programmes WISECONDOR and SeqFF were used for data analysis of aneuploidy status and fetal fraction of cell-free DNA, respectively. Lower limit of fetal fraction for aneuploidy testing was 0.02. Results: We identified four false negative aneuploidy cases of which two were explained by a vanishing twin. The number of no-call cases due to low fetal fraction was 8 out of 273 (2.9%). The sensitivity and specificity, when no-calls and vanished twins were excluded, were 100% and 99.5% for T21, 91% and 99.2% for T18, and 100% and 99.6% for T13. By multiple regression analysis we found a significant association between fetal fraction and gestational age, maternal BMI and ART treatment. Conclusion: With a non-commercial open source NIPT set-up having the same high test-performance as reported by large private laboratories, we show that fetal fraction, a vanishing twin, BMI, gestational age and ART treatment are important factors in the interpretation of NIPT results.

Original languageEnglish
JournalEuropean Journal of Obstetrics Gynecology and Reproductive Biology
Volume226
Pages (from-to)35-39
Number of pages5
ISSN0301-2115
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

    Research areas

  • Aneuploidy, Cell-free DNA, Non-Invasive prenatal testing, Prenatal diagnosis, Sensitivity and specificity

ID: 214404022