by Claudia Boyd-Barrett posted in Pregnancy

Scientists are working on a blood test that could one day predict your due date without the need for an ultrasound or asking you to remember when you had your last menstrual period.
The test, which is still being developed, may also be used to detect whether you're at risk of giving birth prematurely, according to scientists at Stanford University.
Stanford and Danish researchers examined the blood of more than 31 women every week during their pregnancies. They noticed that levels of some genetic messenger molecules, called RNA, changed as the women's pregnancies progressed.
Using blood samples from two thirds of the women, the researchers created a model to predict how RNA levels change over the course of pregnancy. They tested the model on the remaining 10 women's blood samples, and found they could predict the baby's age and due date with 45 percent accuracy, or within 14 days of the actual due date. That's similar to the accuracy rate of ultrasounds during the first trimester, the researchers said.
Next, the scientists used a version of the model to see if they could predict a woman's risk of preterm delivery. This time, they used blood samples from two previous studies involving 38 women with high-risk pregnancies. By applying their model, the researchers correctly guessed whether the women would deliver preterm more than 75 percent of the time, according to the paper published in the journal Science.
There's still a lot mo...