ISTOCK, JACOBLUNDIn a study of 31 expectant mothers, researchers were able to accurately peg their due dates roughly half the time by sequencing nine types of circulating RNA in the blood. The test was about as reliable as using ultrasound, currently the go-to method of establishing a due date. The method, described today (June 7) in Science, also enabled the researchers to predict, in most cases, which of the high-risk pregnancies would end prematurely.
“Obviously the numbers [of participants] are very small but the results are very impressive,” Andrew Shennan, an obstetrics professor at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London who was not involved in the study, tells The Guardian. He adds that such a blood test would be especially useful in developing countries where ultrasound is not readily available.
The study to predict women’s due dates included expectant mothers in Denmark who submitted a blood sample each week throughout their pregnancies. The researchers zeroed in on nine transcripts known to originate in the placenta whose levels corresponded with pregnancy progression. Using these to predict the women’s due dates, the researchers got within 14 days 45 percent of the time. Ultrasound does the same 48 percent of the time, according ...
