Research studies demonstrating the viability of an approach to routinely detect the presence of fetal DNA in a mother's blood to accurately diagnose or rule out genetic defects -- as early as the first trimester -- was presented today at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine being held in San Francisco.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered that a previously unexplained fatal form of Osteogenesis Imperfecta - a disorder that weakens bones and which may cause frequent fractures - results from a genetic defect in a protein involved in the production of collagen.