Prenatal screening
Abbey Fertility Clinic offers non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) for expectant mothers. The Harmony Test is available for women who are at least 10 weeks pregnant and it can be requested for any singleton or twin pregnancy. As it is it non-invasive, it involves taking a blood sample.
The Harmony Test assesses the risk of the following:
- Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome)
- Trisomy 18 (Edward’s Syndrome) and Trisomy 13 (Patau Syndrome)
- Sex chromosome conditions (optional)
When and how is the test performed?
The earliest the Harmony Test can be done is from 10 weeks gestation. An ultrasound scan will need to be performed prior to the blood test to confirm the pregnancy. The blood sample is sent to a laboratory in London. It will take approximately 7 days to receive the result of the test.
How accurate is it?
Traditional testing methods can miss as many as 15% of Down syndrome cases in pregnant women. Conventional screening will detect approximately 70-80% of pregnancies with Down syndrome. The Harmony test will detect over 99%. It has a false positive rate of less than 0.1% compared to 5% with conventional testing. The greater accuracy and low false-positive rate of Harmony compared to the traditional tests minimises the number of high-risk results. Therefore fewer women will require follow up testing using an invasive procedure, such as amniocentesis.
The result
Once we have received the result of your test, a member of the team will call to arrange a follow-up/telephone consultation. Your consultant will discuss the result with you, answer any queries you may have and advise you of the next step(s) if necessary.
In approximately 3% of cases, a repeat blood test may be required.