Discussion on:

New paternity test pinpoints father 8 weeks into pregnancy

Non-invadive prenatal testing is the desire of both the mnedical community and the public.Testing for paternity and genetic conditions without doing an invasive sampling method such as CVS or amniocentesis is a dream at this stage. I counselled a woman who was determined to do non-invasive prenatal testing as she did not wish to chance loosing the pregnancy. She had the DNA work done at a respected clinic in the USA where via peripheral blood testing the alleged father had paternity confirmed. Once the baby was born we tested( in our Australian accredited laboratory) the alleged father and he was not the father of the newborn baby and paternity was confirmed with another man. I find it distressing that DNA companies market this technology for which the results have huge implications and get the result wrong. The mother is so relieved that she did not terminate the pregnancy .Non-invasive prenatal testing is not accepted in Australia by medical specialists and consumers should be aware of its limitations and discuss with either their clinician or their genetic counsellor.

Hi, Just out of curiosity which company did your friend use? I had a test done back in January by Natera Inc., I'm just curious which clinic you are referring to. Your posting made me nervous that my test results are not accurate.

You are clearly writing on behalf of a laboratory. Why dont you identify yourself? Also why dont you name the is respected clinic in the USA? Are you afraid of being sued for posting unverified comments? Why are you putting fear into people that performed this test? Unless you are willing to identify the parties then your comments should be removed by the moderator.

[Re: Dolly5664]
Hi Everyone,

I want to discuss some of the confusion on this message board around non-invasive prenatal paternity testing. Currently there is a method available to test paternity from a simple maternal blood draw as early as 9 weeks gestation with >99% accuracy. Additionally, cheek swab samples from the alleged father(s) are required and results are returned in 5 business days. More information can be found: http://www.natera.com/non-invasive-prenatal-paternity-test.html

Natera's method for accurate, validated testing was published last year at the International Society of Human Identification Meeting in 2011: http://www.natera.com/assets/files/natera-conference-abstracts/7-Paternity-ISHI-2011-Abstract-Submission.pdf
This is the most well-respected meeting related to the world of paternity testing and brought doctors and scientists from all over the world to discuss advances in non-invasive prenatal paternity testing.

There are a lot of misconceptions out there around this type of testing, so please ensure to do your research and make an educated decision based on published data that you can trust.

My name is Jonathan Miller and I work with Paternity Testing Corporation based in Columbia, Missouri. We have seen many companies market this technology with varied results and have been hesitant to provide the service until we were able to find a reliable method for separating the mother's DNA from the unborn child's. We have been in the paternity testing business since the mid-90s and have a strong reputation to keep when it comes to family relationship testing. We have only recently began offering a highly reliable prenatal paternity test. Please feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss it in further detail at no charge.

http://www.ptclabs.com

Best regards,
Jonathan