Clinical impact of additional findings detected by genome-wide non-invasive prenatal testing: Follow-up results of the TRIDENT-2 study.

In the TRIDENT-2 study, all pregnant women in the Netherlands are offered genome-wide non-invasive prenatal testing (GW-NIPT) with a choice of receiving either full screening or screening solely for common trisomies. Previous data showed that GW-NIPT can reliably detect common trisomies in the general obstetric population and that this test can also detect other chromosomal abnormalities (additional findings). However, evidence regarding the clinical impact of screening for additional findings is lacking. Therefore, we present follow-up results of the TRIDENT-2 study to determine this clinical impact based on the laboratory and perinatal outcomes of cases with additional findings. Between April 2017 and April 2019, additional findings were detected in 402/110,739 pregnancies (0.36%). For 358 cases, the origin was proven to be either fetal (n = 79; 22.1%), (assumed) confined placental mosaicism (CPM) (n = 189; 52.8%), or maternal (n = 90; 25.1%). For the remaining 44 (10.9%), the origin of the aberration could not be determined. Most fetal chromosomal aberrations were pathogenic and associated with severe clinical phenotypes (61/79; 77.2%). For CPM cases, occurrence of pre-eclampsia (8.5% [16/189] vs 0.5% [754/159,924]; RR 18.5), and birth weight <2.3rd percentile (13.6% [24/177] vs 2.5% [3,892/155,491]; RR 5.5) were significantly increased compared to the general obstetric population. Of the 90 maternal findings, 12 (13.3%) were malignancies and 32 (35.6%) (mosaic) pathogenic copy number variants, mostly associated with mild or no clinical phenotypes. Data from this large cohort study provide crucial information for deciding if and how to implement GW-NIPT in screening programs. Additionally, these data can inform the challenging interpretation, counseling, and follow-up of additional findings.

TRIDENT-2: National Implementation of Genome-wide Non-invasive Prenatal Testing as a First-Tier Screening Test in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands launched a nationwide implementation study on non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) as a first-tier test offered to all pregnant women. This started on April 1, 2017 as the TRIDENT-2 study, licensed by the Dutch Ministry of Health. In the first year, NIPT was performed in 73,239 pregnancies (42% of all pregnancies), 7,239 (4%) chose first-trimester combined testing, and 54% did not participate. The number of trisomies 21 (239, 0.33%), 18 (49, 0.07%), and 13 (55, 0.08%) found in this study is comparable to earlier studies, but the Positive Predictive Values (PPV)-96% for trisomy 21, 98% for trisomy 18, and 53% for trisomy 13-were higher than expected. Findings other than trisomy 21, 18, or 13 were reported on request of the pregnant women; 78% of women chose to have these reported. The number of additional findings was 207 (0.36%); these included other trisomies (101, 0.18%, PPV 6%, many of the remaining 94% of cases are likely confined placental mosaics and possibly clinically significant), structural chromosomal aberrations (95, 0.16%, PPV 32%,) and complex abnormal profiles indicative of maternal malignancies (11, 0.02%, PPV 64%). The implementation of genome-wide NIPT is under debate because the benefits of detecting other fetal chromosomal aberrations must be balanced against the risks of discordant positives, parental anxiety, and a potential increase in (invasive) diagnostic procedures. Our first-year data, including clinical data and laboratory follow-up data, will fuel this debate. Furthermore, we describe how NIPT can successfully be embedded into a national screening program with a single chain for prenatal care including counseling, testing, and follow-up.

Trial by Dutch laboratories for evaluation of non-invasive prenatal testing. Part I-clinical impact.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical impact of nationwide implementation of genome-wide non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) in pregnancies at increased risk for fetal trisomies 21, 18 and 13 (TRIDENT study). METHOD: Women with elevated risk based on first trimester combined testing (FCT ≥ 1:200) or medical history, not advanced maternal age alone, were offered NIPT as contingent screening test, performed by Dutch University Medical laboratories. We analyzed uptake, test performance, redraw/failure rate, turn-around time and pregnancy outcome. RESULTS: Between 1 April and 1 September 2014, 1413/23 232 (6%) women received a high-risk FCT result. Of these, 1211 (85.7%) chose NIPT. One hundred seventy-nine women had NIPT based on medical history. In total, 1386/1390 (99.7%) women received a result, 6 (0.4%) after redraw. Mean turn-around time was 14 days. Follow-up was available in 1376 (99.0%) pregnancies. NIPT correctly predicted 37/38 (97.4%) trisomies 21, 18 or 13 (29/30, 4/4 and 4/4 respectively); 5/1376 (0.4%) cases proved to be false positives: trisomies 21 (n = 2), 18 (n = 1) and 13 (n = 2). Estimated reduction in invasive testing was 62%. CONCLUSION: Introduction of NIPT in the Dutch National healthcare-funded Prenatal Screening Program resulted in high uptake and a vast reduction of invasive testing. Our study supports offering NIPT to pregnant women at increased risk for fetal trisomy. © 2016 The Authors. Prenatal Diagnosis published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. © 2016 The Authors. Prenatal Diagnosis published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Successful noninvasive trisomy 18 detection using single molecule sequencing.

BACKGROUND: Noninvasive trisomy 21 detection performed by use of massively parallel sequencing is achievable with high diagnostic sensitivity and low false-positive rates. Detection of fetal trisomy 18 and 13 has been reported as well but seems to be less accurate with the use of this approach. The reduced accuracy can be explained by PCR-introduced guanine-cytosine (GC) bias influencing sequencing data. Previously, we demonstrated that sequence data generated by single molecule sequencing show virtually no GC bias and result in a more pronounced noninvasive detection of fetal trisomy 21. In this study, single molecule sequencing was used for noninvasive detection of trisomy 18 and 13. METHODS: Single molecule sequencing was performed on the Helicos platform with free DNA isolated from maternal plasma from 11 weeks of gestation onward (n = 17). Relative sequence tag density ratios were calculated against male control plasma samples and results were compared to those of previous karyotyping. RESULTS: All trisomy 18 fetuses were identified correctly with a diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of 100%. However, low diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were observed for fetal trisomy 13 detection. CONCLUSIONS: We successfully applied single molecule sequencing in combination with relative sequence tag density calculations for noninvasive trisomy 18 detection using free DNA from maternal plasma. However, noninvasive trisomy 13 detection was not accurate and seemed to be influenced by more than just GC content.

A child with complementary mosaic trisomy 8 and mosaic trisomy 21; clinical description of Warkany-Down syndrome and mechanism of origin.

Aneuploidy mosaicism involving two complementary different autosomal trisomy cell lines is extremely rare. Although a mosaic double trisomy 8/trisomy 21 has been described in literature, this is the first report of Warkany (+8)-Down (+21) syndrome due to two complementary mosaic trisomy cell lines. The phenotype of the male patient with Warkany-Down syndrome includes upslanting palpebral fissures, hypertelorism, small low-set ears with unilateral aural stenosis, large and broad hands and feet with deep palmar and plantar creases, bilateral cryptorchidism, generalized mild hypotonia and transient neonatal thrombocytopenia. At the age of two years, his developmental quotient is around 50. His height, weight and head circumference are below the third centile. We speculate on the mechanism of origin of the complementary trisomy cell lines based on molecular cytogenetic studies that showed no evidence for a chimera.

NIPTRIC: an online tool for clinical interpretation of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) results.

To properly interpret the result of a pregnant woman's non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT), her a priori risk must be taken into account in order to obtain her personalised a posteriori risk (PPR), which more accurately expresses her true likelihood of carrying a foetus with trisomy. Our aim was to develop a tool for laboratories and clinicians to calculate easily the PPR for genome-wide NIPT results, using diploid samples as a control group. The tool takes the a priori risk and Z-score into account. Foetal DNA percentage and coefficient of variation can be given default settings, but actual values should be used if known. We tested the tool on 209 samples from pregnant women undergoing NIPT. For Z-scores < 5, the PPR is considerably higher at a high a priori risk than at a low a priori risk, for NIPT results with the same Z-score, foetal DNA percentage and coefficient of variation. However, the PPR is effectively independent under all conditions for Z-scores above 6. A high PPR for low a priori risks can only be reached at Z-scores > 5. Our online tool can assist clinicians in understanding NIPT results and conveying their true clinical implication to pregnant women, because the PPR is crucial for individual counselling and decision-making.