Noninvasive approaches to prenatal diagnosis of hemoglobinopathies using fetal DNA in maternal plasma

Fetal DNA is present in the plasma of pregnant women and can be used for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis. Early work had focused on the detection of paternally inherited fetal mutations in maternal plasma. Recent advances in single-molecule counting approaches have allowed the mutation dosage of the fetus to be analyzed in maternal plasma. These developments have been demonstrated as feasible for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of several hemoglobinopathies, including β-thalassemia and hemoglobin E disease.