Pregnancy Loss

Testing the genetic material of a deceased fetus for all (both autosomal and sex) chromosome aneuploidies and large deletions and duplications larger than 7 Mb (CNVs, copy number variants). If the patient wishes, the sex of the deceased fetus is indicated.

This provides essential information for genetic counseling when a woman experiences a miscarriage. The test uses the mother's blood sample, avoiding the procedure of taking miscarriage tissue. The blood sample can be taken if the gestational age has reached at least 5 weeks (counting from the date of the last menstruation). The sample should be taken as soon as possible after the pregnancy is found to have ended, and definitely before performing the curettage procedure.

• Both numerical and structural chromosome anomalies are the most common cause of spontaneous miscarriage.
• Balanced structural chromosome anomalies can be the cause of recurrent miscarriages, so identifying such anomalies during the first miscarriage is especially important when planning the next pregnancy.
• After a miscarriage, the placental tissue continues to release free (non-cellular) DNA fragments into the mother's circulation for some time. Therefore, after the fact of miscarriage is determined by ultrasound, it is still possible to perform a non-invasive fetal DNA analysis, even if the fetal DNA fraction is very small - this is enabled by a special Veritas algorithm.