Review Non-invasive prenatal

Obtaining fetal material for molecular analysis without the needfor invasive procedures has been a goal of fetal medicine for manyyears.This is becoming a reality now that circulating cell-free fetalnucleic acids can be detected in maternal plasma.Tests are alreadybeing used in clinical practice for the management of X-linkedconditions through the determination of fetal sex and for red cellalloimmunisation by prediction of fetal rhesus D status.Thesensitivity of this technique produces highly accurate results,thereby reducing the number of invasive procedures needed.Thisapproach has also been used in the diagnosis of genetic disordersand in obstetric complications where the level of free fetal DNAmay be a marker for placental abnormalities.