Non-invasive prenatal diagnosis — toward a new horizon

To the Editor: The introduction of non-invasive prenatal testing will revolutionise the practice of prenatal diagnosis. One of the many potential applications of non-invasive prenatal diagnosis (NIPD) is to determine fetal RHD status in pregnant Rhesus (Rh) D-negative women, and the feasibility of such testing was aptly demonstrated by Hyland and colleagues1 and commented on by Cole and Savoia.2 It is clear that once the technical problems of indeterminate results and gene variants are resolved, NIPD for RHD status will have improved clinical utility over current invasive testing, thus reducing the need for invasive procedures and prophylactic treatment of all RhD-negative women.