A group of researchers in South Korea have developed a standard material to improve the credibility of non-invasive prenatal testing(NIPT) to determine whether a more invasive amniotic fluid test is necessary to detect fetal Down syndrome.

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science(KRISS) said on Tuesday that it developed a standard material using the DNA-carrying serum from the mother's blood, instead of water, to increase the credibility of the prenatal test.

Until now, researchers used refined fetal DNA from the mother's blood to determine whether the fetus had Down syndrome.

But such testing was difficult since the mother's blood contains less than five percent of the fetus' DNA material and the amount of DNA material diminishes by as much as 50 percent during the refining process.

The KRISS said by improving the credibility of the non-invasive method, the latest development will help reduce the burden for pregnant women from having to depend on the more expensive and invasive amniotic fluid test.

The findings were published in the March 19th issue of the international Analytical Chemistry journal.