A blood test taken shortly after a miscarriage would make it possible to determine the causes of this spontaneous termination of pregnancy. And above all to provide information allowing blood tests to be carried out in the long term, indicating risky situations.
- To identify the causes of a miscarriage, the mother’s blood is taken from the fifth week of pregnancy and shortly after a spontaneous termination of pregnancy.
- The DNA of the fetus is isolated, sequenced and analyzed to see if it carries a chromosomal abnormality, which is the case in approximately 50 to 60% of miscarriages.
- Thanks to this test, “doctors would be able to predict the risk of future miscarriages.”
One in ten women suffers a miscarriage. According to researchers at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), it would be possible to prevent it with a simple blood test. A blood test taken just after a miscarriage could help to better understand the reasons that can lead to a termination of pregnancy. In a study, called “COPL” for “Copenhagen Pregnancy Loss”, scientists recruited 1,700 women who had lost their babies before the 22nd week of amenorrhea (about 5 months), and presenting an intrauterine pregnancy confirmed by ultrasound. .
Miscarriage: a blood test to find out if the fetus had a chromosomal abnormality
All participants underwent a blood test, already offered in Denmark after three miscarriages and only if these occurred after the tenth week of pregnancy. “Blood from the mother is drawn while the pregnancy tissue was still in situ or within 24 hours of the disappearance of the pregnancy tissue”, can we read in the works published in the journal The Lancet. Once the sample is taken from the fifth week of pregnancy and shortly after a miscarriage, the DNA of the fetus is isolated, sequenced and analyzed to see if it carries a chromosomal abnormality, which is the case in about 50 to 60% of spontaneous terminations of pregnancy.
Doctors will be able to ‘predict the risk of future miscarriages’
According to the authors, this technique makes it possible to precisely determine the cause of the termination of pregnancy, which is essential for implementing preventive measures and limiting the risk of recurrence. “Doctors would also be able to predict the risk of future miscarriages, by showing a DNA sample containing extra copies of chromosome 21, which is linked to Down syndrome,” explained Lene Werge, author of the work, in a statement.
Launched in 2020, the COPL project is still ongoing, which should help build a database on a wide range of diseases. “We will have a good database to properly answer questions about miscarriages, reproduction, but also women’s health in general,” said Henriette Svarre Nielsen, gynecologist and co-author of the study.
