Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) is a prenatal screening that determines the risk of a fetus being born with genetic abnormalities. This test analyzes small fragments of DNA circulating within a pregnant woman’s blood. The NIPT cannot give a definitive answer about whether or not a fetus has a chromosomal disorder. The test can only estimate whether the risk of certain conditions is increased or decreased.

NIPT testing is most often utilized to look for chromosomal disorders caused by the presence of an extra or missing copy of a chromosome. It can be primarily deployed to identify possible disorders such as Down syndrome (caused by an extra chromosome 21), trisomy 18 (caused by an extra chromosome 18), trisomy 13 (caused by an extra chromosome 13), or other possible disorders.