Parents-to-be everywhere may have another reason to jump for joy. A new, highly accurate blood test may be able to tell you the sex of your baby earlier in your pregnancy.

Most couples have to wait until the second trimester of pregnancy (4-6 months), but the simple test could cut that time in half—as early as seven weeks. The test is highly accurate, too. Of the 201 women who were tested between 2003 and 2009, researchers were able to obtain sufficient samples from 189 and produce 100 percent accurate results.

When a woman is pregnant, her body will circulate her blood with blood from the fetus. For this test, a sample of the mother’s blood is screened for genes unique to the Y-chromosome of males. If these genes were present, researchers predicted a boy.

Early testing can also help doctors detect conditions such as Down’s syndrome and Rhesus-D disease (RhD). This method of testing has several advantages over invasive methods, such as fetal blood sampling (FBS), that can cause amniotic fluid leaking or miscarriage.

RhD sometimes results from a blood incompatibility between, for example, an Rh-positive mother and an Rh-negative child. If the mother’s body detects this difference, it may send antibodies against the baby. If it goes untreated, it can lead to jaundice, anemia, brain damage or stillbirth.

 “Noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of fetal Rhesus D genotype is sensitive and accurate and has been widely validated in Europe,” authors noted. “The United States should begin to undertake clinical trials to bring this technology to patient care as soon as possible.”

This test is currently not available to the general public, but continued success could mean it’s on the horizon. Its adoption into general health practices could help cut the risk of fetal complications of RhD.

The study was published in Obstetrics&Gynecology.

A recent study by the National Cancer Institute shows that a patient’s blood type may increase his or her risk of developing pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is a rare form of the disease, accounting for an average of only 29,000 diagnoses in the United States every year. There are more than 42,000 estimated cases this year alone. Pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect, especially in early stages, and spreads quickly. Symptoms include jaundice, abdominal pain, bowel obstruction, and weight loss (because the pancreas is unable to properly metabolize sugar).

Blood type is determined by the ABO gene, found on a region of the 9^th chromosome (typically referred to as “region 9”). Glycoproteins are produced in different combinations to determine an individual’s blood type—either A, B, AB, or O. Blood type dictates how sugars are placed on the cell’s surface. In pancreatic tumor cells, this transference is different.

Although it is relatively rare, pancreatic cancer is extremely life threatening because many people are not diagnosed until after it has already spread. Risk is greater for male smokers over the age of 60 with a family history of the disease.  According to Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN), it is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and fewer than 5% of patients survive five years following diagnosis.

The relationship between blood type and pancreatic cancer was first suggested more than half a century ago when research in the 50s and 60s yielded similar results. The results of the study come from Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-up Study, associated a 17% greater risk for pancreatic cancer for patients with non-O blood types.

The Pancreatic Cancer Cohort Consortium, an organization of 12 academic medical centers, conducted the study with the help of the National Cancer Institute. Researchers followed 4,353 individuals with pancreatic cancer and 4,593 without, using whole-genome scans to detect similar genetic patterns that may be related to the disease.

“As more variants are discovered and follow-up studies are conducted to examine the biological effects of these variants,” says co-author Stephen J. Chanock, M.D., chief of NCI’s Laboratory of Translational Genomics in DCEG, “a better understanding will emerge of the inherited risk factors and mechanisms that lead to the development of pancreatic cancer."

Both tests showed a greater risk for patients with A and B blood types. The first of the two experiments in March, 2009, showed that blood type A had a 32% higher risk, with type AB increasing by 51% and type B increasing by 72% for risk of pancreatic cancer development.

Co-author Patricia Hartge, Sc.D., also of NCI's Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, says much more work is needed to better understand the link between blood type and pancreatic cancer: “This finding may lead to improved diagnostic and therapeutic interventions that are so desperately needed."

The study will be published in this month’s online issue of Nature Genetics. Click here to read the study’s extract, or find more information about pancreatic cancer.

Connect with others and learn more in our Pancreatic Cancer Community, or take the Healia Cancer Quiz!

Economy class syndrome also known as deep venous thrombosis made news a couple of years ago when a British woman died after a long flight from a blood clot. At the time one question left unanswered was how often this occurs.

In a new study, European researchers calculated the risk to be 1 in 4,656. According to Dr. Samuel Z. Goldhaber, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Venous Thromboembolism Research Group at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston:

This risk is a tiny risk compared with the risk of venous thromboembolism from obesity, severe medical illness, cancer, or surgery.

Deep venous thrombosis is a condition in which a blood clot forms in a vein that is deep inside the body. This can occur if a person stays in the same position for prolonged periods; be it on an airplane, in a car, or on a train.

Signs and symptoms to watch out for while traveling include: leg pain, tenderness or swelling in your leg, and changes in skin color in your leg.

While there are no consistently effective preventive measures, you might try:

• Wearing loose and comfortable clothing
• Walking around as much as possible before your flight
• Moving during the flight– rotate your ankles, flex and point your toes, stand up in your row, or walk the aisles at least every hour

Search Healia for more information on economy class syndrome.

economy class syndrome blood clots deep venous thrombosis