ArticleLancet (London, England)1997
Presence of fetal DNA in maternal plasma and serum.
Article in Lancet (London, England), 1997. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 929 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effectiveness of Routine Fetal RhD Genotyping for RhD- Pregnant Women
Non-invasive Chromosomal Examination of Trisomy
Who cites it
929 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Ethical dilemmas in continuing pregnancy after a prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart defects: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.BMC medical ethics · 2025Pooled it
- Is It Feasible to Screen for Fetal De Novo or Paternally Inherited Pathogenic Single Nucleotide Variants in Maternal Plasma Cell-Free DNA? A Systematic Literature Review.Prenatal diagnosis · 2025Pooled it
- Low fetal fraction and adverse pregnancy outcomes- systematic review of the literature and metanalysis.Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Effects of an animated educational video on knowledge of cell-free DNA screening among Thai pregnant women: a randomized control trial.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Trial
- Proband-independent noninvasive prenatal diagnosis for spinal muscular atrophy: early detection paving the way for early prenatal treatment.Annals of medicine · 2026Article
- Reappraising the topology of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal blood toward improved prenatal genetic diagnostics.Science advances · 2026Review
- Excessively High Maternal Total Cell-Free DNA Concentration and Fetal Growth Restriction in Singleton Pregnancies: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- A prospective study of non-invasive preimplantation genetic testing for Rh status, sex prediction and mtDNA copy number analysis using ddPCR on spent culture media.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2026Article
- Neonatal cytogenetic validation demonstrates high accuracy of single-nucleotide polymorphism-based non-invasive prenatal testing: a 4466-case single-center study.Journal of human genetics · 2026Article
- Feto-Maternal Microchimerism and the Brain: Mechanisms, Neurological Implications, and Translational Perspectives.American journal of reproductive immunology (New York, N.Y. : 1989) · 2026Review
- Novel and High-Throughput Method of Isolating Single Fetal Cells Using FACS for NIPT.Prenatal diagnosis · 2026Article
- Cell-free DNA screening for sex chromosome aneuploidy in 67,099 pregnancies: A retrospective analysis.Journal of medical screening · 2026Article
- Complementary Diagnostic Roles of Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing, Chromosomal Microarray Analysis, and Karyotyping in 14,011 High-Risk Pregnancies: A Retrospective Cohort Study with Combined Analyses.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Integrated Single-Strand DNA Capture and Haplotype-Guided Variant Calling Platform for Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing of Monogenic Disorders.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Article
- A scalable deep-learning framework for cancer detection using cell-free DNA shallow whole-genome sequencing.Science advances · 2026Article
- Nucleosome-targeted host DNA depletion enables automated plasma metagenomic sequencing for sensitive detection of bloodstream pathogens.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Article
- Toward Small CNV Detection in NIPT: A Preliminary Analytical Evaluation of Sequencing Depth and Workflow Configuration.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
869 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe potential use of plasma and serum for molecular diagnosis has generated interest. Tumour DNA has been found in 'the plasma and serum of cancer patients, and molecular analysis has been done on this material. We investigated the equivalent condition in pregnancy-that is, whether fetal DNA is present in maternal plasma and serum.
methodsWe used a rapid-boiling method to extract DNA from plasma and serum. DNA from plasma, serum, and nucleated blood cells from 43 pregnant women underwent a sensitive Y-PCR assay to detect circulating male fetal DNA from women bearing male fetuses.
findingsFetus-derived Y sequences were detected in 24 (80%) of the 30 maternal plasma samples, and in 21 (70%) of the 30 maternal serum samples, from women bearing male fetuses. These results were obtained with only 10 microL of the samples. When DNA from nucleated blood cells extracted from a similar volume of blood was used, only five (17%) of the 30 samples gave a positive Y signal. None of the 13 women bearing female fetuses, and none of the ten non-pregnant control women, had positive results for plasma, serum or nucleated blood cells.
interpretationOur finding of circulating fetal DNA in maternal plasma may have implications for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis, and for improving our understanding of the fetomaternal relationship.
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9274585What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.