Single-nucleotide polymorphism-based noninvasive prenatal screening in a high-risk and low-risk cohort

To estimate performance of a single-nucleotide polymorphism-based noninvasive prenatal screen for fetal aneuploidy in high-risk and low-risk populations on single venopuncture.

One thousand sixty-four maternal blood samples from 7 weeks of gestation and beyond were included; 1,051 were within specifications and 518 (49.3%) were low risk. Cell-free DNA was amplified, sequenced, and analyzed using the Next-generation Aneuploidy Test Using SNPs algorithm. Samples were called as trisomies 21, 18, 13, or monosomy X, or euploid, and male or female.

Nine hundred sixty-six samples (91.9%) successfully generated a cell-free DNA result. Among these, sensitivity was 100% for trisomy 21 (58/58, confidence interval [CI] 93.8-100%), trisomy 13 (12/12, CI 73.5-100%), and fetal sex (358/358 female, CI 99.0-100%; 418/418 male, CI 99.1-100%), 96.0% for trisomy 18 (24/25, CI 79.7-99.9%), and 90% for monosomy X (9/10, CI 55.5-99.8%). Specificity for trisomies 21 and 13 was 100% (905/905, CI 99.6-100%; and 953/953, CI 99.6-100%, respectively) and for trisomy 18 and monosomy X was 99.9% (938/939, CI 99.4-100%; and 953/954, CI 99.4-100%, respectively). However, 16% (20/125) of aneuploid samples did not return a result; 50% (10/20) had a fetal fraction below the 1.5th percentile of euploid pregnancies. Aneuploidy rate was significantly higher in these samples (P<.001, odds ratio 9.2, CI 4.4-19.0). Sensitivity and specificity did not differ in low-risk and high-risk populations.

This noninvasive prenatal screen performed with high sensitivity and specificity in high-risk and low-risk cohorts. Aneuploid samples were significantly more likely to not return a result; the number of aneuploidy samples was especially increased among samples with low fetal fraction. This underscores the importance of redraws or, in rare cases, invasive procedures based on low fetal fraction.

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