What is Fetal Fraction Percentage? Understanding Fetal Fraction in Prenatal Testing

Afeef Chaudhary

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fetal fraction percentage

What is the fetal fraction percentage? The fetal fraction percentage shows how much fetal DNA is in a pregnant woman’s blood sample acquired during non-invasive prenatal testing. For most tests to be reliable, there must be a fetal fraction of at least 4–5%. This number can change depending on the length of pregnancy, the weight of the mother. Keep reading…

What is fetal fraction percentage?

What is fetal fraction percentage

The fetal fraction percentage can be as low as 4% or as high as 30% of the blood plasma, but it is most often between 10% and 20%. It normally takes a 4% FF to find fetal aneuploidy or other DNA problems. This number tells you how much placental cfDNA is in the mother’s blood. They need a bigger piece of the fetal tissue to learn more about the baby’s genes. 

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Understanding Fetal Fraction in Prenatal Testing

Understanding Fetal Fraction in Prenatal Testing

Hopefully you will understand what does fetal fraction mean, and now check out more. To examine it, at least 4% of the maternal cfDNA must be fetal. A normal woman will have 10 to 15 percent of her fetus between 10 and 20 weeks of pregnancy.

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Conclusion

After knowing the fetal fraction meaning, hopefully, you understand this clearly. A prenatal fraction is important to how well and often Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing works. The test determines how much the cfDNA from the placenta is in the mother’s blood. Hopefully you will understand what is fetal fraction percentage and more about it.

FAQ

What does NIPT have to do with a fetal fraction?

This section of NIPT is crucial since it indicates test reliability. There must be enough fetal DNA to examine the mother’s cfDNA.

If additional tissue is needed, what happens?

If the fetal proportion is very low, generally less than 4%, the NIPT may yield inaccurate or fraudulent hits. 

How does a mother’s weight affect a baby’s fraction?

Fat women have less mother cfDNA in their blood, suggesting that weight affects fetusfraction. Since births decline, NIPT may need to be more precise.

How do twins affect a woman?

Twins can have 1.6 times more fetuses than one. Extra fetal DNA improves NIPT but makes distinguishing between babies’ cfDNA inputs difficult.

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9245487/#:~:text=The%20average%20FF%20may%20vary,aneuploidy%20or%20other%20genetic%20defects.

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