By Sarah Morgan

Researchers have developed a less invasive blood test to determine if an unborn baby has Down's syndrome or not

A new test for Down's syndrome has been developed that is less invasive according to researchers. Ravgen is the name of the company that has developed the test that examines fetal DNA while not subjecting the mother to be to any sort of risk.

Current tests for Down's syndrome are more intrusive, and can actually raise a pregnant woman's risk of miscarrying her baby thus the new test which works by examining fetal DNA from blood cells from the mother has shown great promise due to the mother not being put at any risk of miscarriage.

"Right now in the market there is no test available that can reliably do what we do in this study which is, without needing any invasive procedure, to determine whether a baby has an abnormality or not," said Ravinder Dhallan, lead author of the study and the head of Ravgen.

In 60 blood samples, the new testing technique proved to be correct on 58 of them, proving that the percentage of success rate is very high.

According to Neil Avent, co-ordinator of the Special Non-Invasive Advances in Foetal and Neonatal Evaluation Network, the test would not be available for 2 to 3 years: "At the current rate it will take two to three years for the test to become available. We need to validate it with a larger scale study. The Hong Kong research is more revolutionary and we will be trialling it through the network of laboratories."

"It's a no-brainer when it comes to tests for Down's syndrome. It's a non-invasive test which is much safer."