Cell-Free Fetal DNA Screening Analysis in Korean Pregnant Women: Six Years of Experience and a Retrospective Study of 9327 Patients Analyzed from 2017 to 2022

Abstract

Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) screening for normal fetal aneuploidy has been widely adopted worldwide due to its convenience, non-invasiveness, and high positive predictive rate. We retrospectively evaluated 9327 Korean women with single pregnancies who underwent a non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) to investigate how various factors such as maternal weight, age, and the method of conception affect the fetal fraction (FF). The average FF was 9.15 ± 3.31%, which decreased significantly as the maternal body mass index (BMI) increased (p p p = 0.62). In conclusion, BMI was the factor most associated with the fetal fraction. Although the NIPT is a highly prevalent method in prenatal analysis, factors affecting the fetal fraction should be thoroughly analyzed to obtain more accurate results.

Keywords

• cell-free DNA (cfDNA)
• non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT)
• body mass index (BMI)
• fetal fraction screening test