Pregnancy Loss

Testing of the genetic material of the deceased fetus for all (both autosomal and sex) chromosome aneuploidies and large deletions and duplications greater than 7 Mb in size (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. A maternal blood sample is used for the test, avoiding the procedure of collecting miscarriage tissues. A blood sample can be taken if the gestational age has reached at least 5 weeks (calculated from the date of the last menstruation). The sample should be taken as soon as possible after the pregnancy has been found to have ended, and definitely before performing the curettage procedure.

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