Test Finds Trisomies in Twins and Triplets, Too

Prenatal testing for Down syndrome and other trisomies using massively parallel shotgun sequencing appears to be reliable for twin and triplet pregnancies, report researchers led by Brown University's Glenn Palomaki. The team tested maternal plasma samples from 25 twin pregnancies and two triplet pregnancies using Sequenom's MaterniT21 Plus LDT. As it reports in Prenatal Diagnosis , "MPSS testing correctly identified all seven twin pregnancies with Down syndrome and the one twin pregnancy with trisomy 13, indicating that this test can be clinically useful in testing twin pregnancies." The triplet pregnancies had no trisomies.

"The underlying biology and these positive study data provide evidence that this type of DNA-testing can be reliably employed as a clinical management option for women expecting twins or triplets who are at increased risk for fetal chromosome anomalies," says Allan Bombard, laboratory director at the Sequenom Center for Molecular Medicine, in a statement.