LifeCodexx’s improved PrenaTest can be performed at early stage of pregnancy

Generally, PrenaTest is used to determine fetal trisomies 13, 18 and 21 in mother’s blood.

It is advisable to perform the test when the mother is at high risk due to a genetic disposition which includes the presence of Robertsonian translocation in one parent, or fetal trisomy diagnosed during a previous pregnancy or at an early stage of pregnancy.

The advancement of PrenaTest was possible by using the company’s QuantYfeX technology.

QuantYfeX technology helps in the measurement of the amount of cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) in the mother’s blood initially at the commencing of the lab process.

LifeCodexx has collaborated with Sequenom to perform PrenaTest’s additional clinical study on 340 samples which were taken from risk pregnancy women.

Even if the amount of this DNA is at least 4% during the early weeks of pregnancy, LifeCodexx claims that the test can reliably analyse the blood sample.

LifeCodexx chairman Dr Michael Lutz said, "Through the advancement of our QuantYfeX technology and its early integration into the PrenaTest® analysis, we are the first company worldwide, which is able to notify physicians and their respective patients immediately on accession of the sample, if the blood sample can be analysed."

Physicians can now be notified at the commencement of the lab process even when the amount of detected cffDNA is too low, by which the doctors can then take a new blood sample which would gradually minimize the stressful waiting period for the anxious mothers.

Codexx medical director Dr Wera Hofmann said the attending physician will decide during consultation of the patient, if the improved PrenaTest is advisable before the ninth week of pregnancy.

"According to the recommendations of experts, non-invasive molecular genetic tests such as PrenaTest® are especially advisable in connection with a first trimester ultrasound, which is performed between W 11 + D0 and W 13 + D6 of pregnancy," Hofmann added.