Australian scientists have developed world’s first test that could help prevent stillbirth, a tragedy that affects millions globally each year.
The test can detect if a baby was at a risk of stillbirth, and has been developed by the researchers at Mercy Health, according to media reports in Melbourne.
Scientist and clinician Clare Whitehead and supervisors professors Stephen Tong and Susan Walker developed the test which measures fragments called RNA that are released when a baby is suffering from dangerously low levels of oxygen.
The researchers were able to show that the amount of RNA fragments circulating in a mother’s bloodstream appears to accurately reflect of how low oxygen levels are within a baby.
‘The test could allow caregivers to deliver at-risk babies before stillbirth strikes,’ Mercy Health’s statement said.
Whitehead said doctors currently rely on repeated ultrasounds to monitor foetal well-being…These tests used widely in the clinic are far from perfect and only give very blunt estimations of foetal oxygen levels’.
She said although tests on about 100 women gave her confidence the technique worked, the team was now running a clinical trial involving about 180 pregnancies at seven hospitals in Australia and New Zealand.
‘We’ll get those results over the next few years, but the technology already exists so we could have a test within five years,’ The Age quoted her as saying. (Read: What NOT to do during pregnancy – 10 things to avoid!)
About one in 135 women is affected by having a stillbirth and of the stillbirths that occur, over 50 per cent of them are due to growth restriction that we haven’t picked up, she said.
‘So if we can identify these pregnancies before the stillbirth happens and monitor their oxygen levels, we could prevent some of those deaths,’ she said.
Source: PTI
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