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Prenatal Paternity Testing - Commonly Asked Questions

 

1.  How is our DNA Prenatal Paternity Testing done?

 

A small amount of your baby’s DNA is present in your blood. A safe blood draw from your arm can determine the father of your baby by matching the baby’s DNA with the father’s DNA.

 

2.  How accurate is our DNA Prenatal Paternity Test?

 

DNA prenatal paternity testing can either exclude or confirm a father. Our test is over 99% accurate.

 

3.  Where do I go for testing?

 

Express Lab Testing in Clarkston, MI (248.625.5600)

 

4.  How early can you detect fetal DNA?

 

Fetal DNA can be detected as early as 4 weeks and rises rapidly throughout the first trimester. We can do very reliable DNA testing from fetal DNA present in the mother’s blood after the 8th week of pregnancy.

 

5.  What kind of things can you test for with fetal DNA?

 

We can test for a number of single gene disorders including: cystic fibrosis, sickle cell, and the Jewish panel. In addition to single gene disorders, we can do non-invasive prenatal DNA paternity testing.

 

6.  Can cells last from a previous pregnancy?

 

In the mother’s blood there are intact fetal cells and free floating fetal DNA, which was released from intact fetal cells destroyed by the mother’s immune system. While it is thought that a few rare intact fetal cells can escape the mother’s immune system and persist from previous pregnancies, free floating fetal DNA can only last for a few hours. Therefore, all of our tests are based on free floating fetal DNA present in the mother’s blood rather than intact fetal cells. It has been well shown that free floating fetal DNA can not exist from previous pregnancies.

 

7.  Is this technology approved by any governing bodies?

 

This test has been recognized and approved by the College of American pathologists (CAP) and has received a certificate of accreditation under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA).   The basis of this technology has been published in top medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet and the Journal of the American Medical Association

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