Verifi Prenatal Test – Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT)

The Verifi Prenatal Test is a simple blood test that screens for the most common chromosomal abnormalities which can affect your baby's future health.

Available from as early as 10 weeks into the pregnancy, this technology can non-invasively screen your pregnancy without risk to the baby or mother. The Verifi test analyzes cell-free DNA originating from the pregnancy, present in the mother's blood sample.

Both singleton and twin pregnancies can be screen for aneuploidy such as Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) Trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome) and Trisomy 18 (Edwards' syndrome). Additionally, in singleton pregnancies, all chromosome imbalances and select microdeletion syndromes can be detected.

Each cell of the human body contains 46 chromosomes or 23 pairs of chromosomes. Chromosomes are tiny structures in each of our cells which carry the instruction manual for our body on how to grow and develop. During pregnancy, the baby receives half of their chromosomes from the female's ­­­­­egg and the other half from the male's sperm.

A chromosomal imbalance includes missing or extra chromosomes (or parts of chromosomes) which can cause a miscarriage or health problems in a liveborn baby. The chromosomal imbalance is usually present at the time of conception, when the egg is fertilized by the sperm, causing the embryo to develop differently from the beginning. Most often, these chromosomal imbalances occur completely due to chance. In these instances, at the time that the sperm or egg was created, the chromosomes were not divided properly and equally, resulting in an imbalance of chromosomes in the pregnancy.

Common Chromosomal Anomalies

Trisomies are caused by the presence of an extra chromosome, such that there are three copies rather than the typical two. An extra copy of chromosome 13 causes Trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome) and an extra copy of chromosome 18 causes Trisomy 18 (Edwards''' syndrome). Both of these conditions cause serious health problem and baby's usually pass away in their first year of life.

An extra copy of chromosome 21 causes Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) which affects the baby's physical and cognitive development. These three trisomy syndromes are the most common seen in livebirth babies.

Sex chromosome imbalances are caused by differences in the number of X or Y chromosomes, which determine biological sex. Females typically have two X chromosomes and males typically have one X and one Y chromosome. Differences in the numbers of sex chromosomes can cause birth defects, delays in puberty, infertility and intellectual disability.

Microdeletions are small missing regions of chromosomes and can cause birth defects and developmental delays. The size of a chromosome imbalance does not always correlate with the severity of the resulting health problems. The Verifi Prenatal Test is capable of screening pregnancies for select microdeletion syndromes such as 1p36 deletion, 4p- (Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome), 5p- (cri-du-chat syndrome), 15q11.2 (Prader-Willi syndrome/Angelman syndrome), and 22q11.2 deletion (DiGeorge syndrome).

It is recommended that all pregnant women receive some type of prenatal screening. Any pregnant women can have the Verifi Prenatal test starting at 10 weeks of pregnancy. This includes twin pregnancies and pregnancies conceived through in vitro fertilization.

The Verifi Prenatal Test can detect Trisomy 21, 18, and 13 with greater than 99.9% accuracy.

For the remaining chromosomes, imbalances can be detected through the Verify Plus Prenatal Test with greater than 96% accuracy. Screening for microdeletion and duplication syndromes using the Verifi test has greater than 74% accuracy.

For Verifi and Verifi Plus Prenatal Tests, if a woman receives an aneuploidy detected result for Trisomy 21, Trisomy 18, or Trisomy 13 in a singleton pregnancy, the report will include a Positive Predictive Value (PPV) based on the test's sensitivity and specificity for the condition, maternal age, and gestational age.

To be eligible for NIPT from Mount Sinai Services, first speak with your family doctor, obstetrician, or genetic counsellor. MSS offers the Verifi and Verifi Plus Prenatal Tests to low-risk, privately paying patients.

Please see our respective patient ordering guides for MSH and non-MSH patients to receive this test through your healthcare provider. You must be at least 10 weeks gestation for the blood draw. Results will be provided to your healthcare provider.

Please note that high-risk pregnancy patients (criteria determined by your healthcare provider) are not candidates for Ministry of Health reimbursement but qualify for NIPT.

To download the NIPT test requisition form, please follow the link below:

Prenatal Test Requisition Form

Verifi Prenatal Test (NIPT)

The Verifi Prenatal Test is a simple blood test that screens for the most common chromosomal abnormalities that can affect your baby’s future health. Available from as early as 10 weeks into the pregnancy, this technology can non-invasively screen your pregnancy without any risks to the baby or mother.