September 2017—The CAP Surveys program is offering for 2018 a novel external proficiency test for laboratories that perform screening of cell-free (cf) DNA in maternal plasma for common aneuploidies.
Read More »Cell-free DNA screening blooms in expansion to low-risk pregnancies
March 2017—Something about having the letters “DNA” in a test’s name may make the test seem like the last word, the key to a black-and-white, definitive diagnosis. That connotation has been problematic for cell-free DNA sequencing used for noninvasive prenatal testing, because the test is not intended or designed for diagnosis, but only for screening. It’s for that reason, in fact, that some maternal-fetal medicine specialists and clinical geneticists prefer to use the term “noninvasive prenatal screening,” with the acronym NIPS.
Read More »For prenatal NGS labs, new accreditation requirements
September 2013—With the 2013 edition of the Laboratory Accreditation Program checklist, the College moves to a new level in its effort to ensure the highest-quality practices in clinical laboratories’ use of next-generation DNA sequencing.
Read More »Next-gen arrives for next (prenatal) generation
July 2013—In his 25-year practice career, Texas obstetrician James Maher, MD, has performed several thousand amniocenteses, using a long needle to draw amniotic fluid from the uterus of higher-risk pregnant women to rule out certain fetal chromosomal abnormalities—trisomy 21, or Down syndrome, in particular.
Read More »