Noninvasive prenatal testing and maternal obesity: A review

Abstract

Noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) has become a popular screening test for the most common fetal aneuploidies. The performance of NIPT is affected by several factors including maternal obesity, which results in a greater rate of no‐calls for obese pregnant women. Guidelines regarding NIPT in prenatal screening have been published, but with few and divergent recommendations on the issue. We aimed to review the medical literature, guidelines from scientific societies and information material from commercial NIPT providers on no‐calls and maternal obesity. We systematically identified medical literature and guidelines from scientific societies using the database MEDLINE. Information material from commercial NIPT providers was found via a systematic search on Google.com. Nine medical studies investigating the association between maternal obesity and NIPT no‐calls were included. They all showed the same trend: increasing no‐call rate with increasing maternal obesity. The no‐call rate ranged from 0% to 4.2% for women with BMI 18.5‐24.9 and from 5.4% to 70.1% for women BMI ≥40. We identified 17 scientific societies with guidelines and 13 commercial NIPT providers. All were checked for information material on no‐calls and maternal obesity. To allow comparison, all guidelines were examined to answer the same three predefined questions. Out of the 17 included scientific societies, 13 (76.5%) mentioned the association between maternal obesity and NIPT no‐calls, two (11.8%) specified weight limits and three (17.6%) advised against NIPT for severely obese pregnant women. None of the 13 commercial NIPT providers provided specific recommendations, whilst four (30.8%) cite maternal obesity as a potential cause for a no‐call. Because of the increasing number of patients in this group, we advocate updated recommendations to guide decision making in prenatal screening for obese pregnant women.