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Pregnant women with fetuses at risk for X-linked or other sex-dependent genetic disorders must undergo invasive procedures (e.g., chorionic villus sampling) to learn the fetal sex or wait until the second trimester when ultrasound is sufficiently reliable. Researchers have made use of circulating cell-free fetal DNA in maternal blood to determine fetal sex, thereby making this information available earlier than is possible with ultrasound. Now, investigators have performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of 57 studies to assess the analytical value of this technology.
Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RTQ-PCR) for amplification of fetal DNA was most commonly used and was superior to conventional amplification techniques…