A ‘LANDMARK’ study which is boosting understanding of prenatal abnormalities has also shown that microarrays enabled researchers to detect smaller aberrations than traditional karyotyping, reports Agilent.
The three-year study, published last week in New England Journal of Medicine by researchers from from Emory University, Baylor College of Medicine, Columbia University, and Signature Genomics, is “Chromosomal microarray versus karyotyping for prenatal diagnosis”
The main objective of the research was to evaluate the accuracy, efficacy, and potential advantages of using microarray analysis compared to conventional karyotyping.
Their secondary objective of the study, sponsored by the US National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, was to evaluate analytical performance.
Agilent was the primary contributor of microarrays and reagents used in this study, with 71 percent of samples run being on the company’s SurePrint CGH microarrays.
A total of 5500 arrays were used, with the majority of samples composed of uncultured amniotic fluid and chorionic villi.
All samples were also sent to a reference lab for chromosome analysis.
All data was submitted to the US National Center for Biotechnology Information and is available to the public free of charge.