Granada: Method to determine sex of foetus at 8 weeks

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Researchers at Granada University spin-out Lorgen have demonstrated the effectiveness of a method for diagnosing the sex of a foetus as early as 8 weeks’ gestation – rather than during the forth or fifth month, as is done at present.

The method was developed by isolating foetal DNA from the peripheral blood plasma of pregnant women. The technique relies on the fact that 3.4 to 6.2 per cent of the mother’s peripheral blood DNA is of foetal origin.

This non-invasive method has been proven to be 98 per cent effective in a clinical trial of 120 women led by Dr Sebastian Manzanares’s team at the Foetal Medicine Unit of the Virgen de las Nieves Maternity Hospital. It saves parents waiting for the conventional four or five month mark, and has a 48 hour turn-around time once the mother’s blood has been sampled.

This technique will also be useful in the prenatal diagnosis of monogenic diseases, particularly those linked to the female X chromosome, such as haemophilia or muscular dystrophy. In this respect the technique could be used instead of invasive prenatal diagnoses such as amniocentesis, chorionic villus biopsy and cordcentesis, interventions which could entail risk to the foetus.