Outcome of publicly funded nationwide first-tier noninvasive prenatal screening

Genetics in Medicine (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

Noninvasive prenatal screening (NIPS) using cell-free DNA has transformed prenatal care. Belgium was the first country to implement and fully reimburse NIPS as a first-tier screening test offered to all pregnant women. A consortium consisting of all Belgian genetic centers report the outcome of two years genome-wide NIPS implementation.

Methods

The performance for the common trisomies and for secondary findings was evaluated based on 153,575 genome-wide NIP tests. Furthermore, the evolution of the number of invasive tests and the incidence of Down syndrome live births was registered.

Results

Trisomies 21, 18, and 13 were detected in respectively 0.32%, 0.07%, and 0.06% of cases, with overall positive predictive values (PPVs) of 92.4%, 84.6%, and 43.9%. Rare autosomal trisomies and fetal segmental imbalances were detected in respectively 0.23% and 0.07% of cases with PPVs of 4.1% and 47%. The number of invasive obstetric procedures decreased by 52%. The number of trisomy 21 live births dropped to 0.04%.

Conclusion

Expanding the scope of NIPS beyond trisomy 21 fetal screening allows the implementation of personalized genomic medicine for the obstetric population. This genome-wide NIPS approach has been embedded successfully in prenatal genetic care in Belgium and might serve as a framework for other countries offering NIPS.

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Fig. 1: Incidence of rare autosomal trisomies.
Fig. 2: Percentage of pregnancies with a fetal or maternal imbalance from first-tier genome-wide NIPS.
Fig. 3

Data availability

This clinical utility study presents aggregated clinical data. All data are presented within the paper.

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Acknowledgements

Part of this work was funded by KULeuven funding (C1/018).

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Center for Human Genetics, University Hospitals Leuven–KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Kris Van Den Bogaert, Nathalie Brison, Vincent Gatinois, Koenraad Devriendt & Joris Robert Vermeesch

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Lore Lannoo

  3. Center for Medical Genetics, University Hospital Ghent, Ghent, Belgium

    Machteld Baetens, Annelies Dheedene, Sandra Janssens & Björn Menten

  4. Center for Medical Genetics, Universiteit Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium

    Bettina Blaumeiser & Katrien Janssens

  5. Center for Medical Genetics, University Hospital Antwerp, Edegem, Belgium

    Bettina Blaumeiser & Marjan De Rademaeker

  6. Center for Medical Genetics, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Liège, Liège, Belgium

    François Boemer, Vincent Bours, Jean-Stéphane Gatot & Leonor Palmeira

  7. Center for Human Genetics, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Laura Bourlard, Julie Désir, Bruno Pichon & Guillaume Smits

  8. Center for Human Genetics, Université Catholique de Louvain, Brussels, Belgium

    Anne De Leener, Armelle Duquenne & Yves Sznajer

  9. Center for Medical Genetics, Institut de Pathologie et de Génétique Gosselies, Charleroi, Belgium

    Julie Désir, Bernard Grisart, Damien Lederer, Axel Marichal & Colombine Meunier

  10. Center for Medical Genetics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Nathalie Fieremans, Annelies Fieuw, Eva Sammels & Elise Vantroys

Authors
  1. Kris Van Den Bogaert
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Contributions

Conceptualization: K.V.D.B., K.D., J.R.V. Investigation & methodology: K.V.D.B, N.B. Formal analysis: L.L., N.B. Visualization: V.G. Data curation: M.B., B.B., F.B. L.B., A.D.L., MD., J.D., A.Dheedene., A.Duquenne., N.F., A.F., J.G., K.J., S.J., D.L., A.M., B.M. C.M. L.P., B.P. E.S., E.V, V.B., G.S., Y.S. Supervision: K.V.D.B., K.D., J.R.V. Validation: N.B., K.V.D.B. Writing—original draft, review, and editing: K.V.B., L.L., N.B., K.J., K.D., J.R.V.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joris Robert Vermeesch.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Van Den Bogaert, K., Lannoo, L., Brison, N. et al. Outcome of publicly funded nationwide first-tier noninvasive prenatal screening. Genet Med (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41436-021-01101-4

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