Manchester/Stockport - best place for Harmony, Panorama, etc?

[CC81]

Hi all, I hope you can help me. It's my first time and I'm over 35, so want to find out as much as I can about the baby's health in the first trimester. I'm exactly 6 weeks today.

Where is the best place in the Manchester/Stockport area to have a Harmony/Panorama test done - in terms of cost and expertise? And at what stage is it best to do it? I wonder whether the results are more conclusive at 12 weeks rather than 10, for example. Or even 14 or 16?

Also, do you recommend early scans or any other tests? And what are the best places and costs? I'm really rather clueless about it all! I've done some Google research, of course, but recommendations would be a MASSIVE help :)

My first appointment of any kind is with my GP next week (at nearly 7 weeks). I'll tell the doctor and then see what happens, I guess.

[SuziePink]

You can't have any of the Non Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) tests under 10 weeks as far as I'm aware. If you are in the Manchester area then IONA is a good one to go for as the labs are there already. I had it just over a week ago and the results came back within a week. It will cost around £400-500.

As the NIPT looks at fetal DNA it doesn't get any more or less accurate at any stage and any clinic offering it should do a scan at the same time. In terms of issues if there isn't enough fetal DNA in the sample then they will need to take another one but this seems to be more of an issue with Harmony than IONA.

In terms of expertise, they only take 10ml of blood to send to the lab and the clinic will be registered with the NIPT provider so it's not at all skilled and only needs to be taken by someone with the qualifications to take blood samples.

Your GP will refer you to a midwife who see you sometime between 8 and 10 weeks and s/he will inform you of all the scans and tests. If you're definitely going to have NIPT then it is probably best to decline the combined trisomy risk test as it is much less accurate. You will have your dating scan at around 10-13 weeks and an anomaly scan at 20 weeks if you choose.

See here for general information and here for where you can get the IONA test done near you.

See here for general information on antenatal care.

[CC81]

Thanks @SuziePink - that's extremely useful :)

It gives me a bit of a hint of what to ask the midwife! I hadn't even heard of IONA.

What's the difference between IONA, Harmony and Panorama? Are they just different names for the same thing?

I get different results when I search for facilities for the Harmony test.

[SuziePink]

As far as I'm aware they are all different NIPT tests. So the labs will be different and the techniques used to analyse the samples will be different as well.

Harmony is originally an American company who now have labs in London. That needs two samples of blood and tests for Down, Edwards, and Patau syndromes, other chromosomal abnormalities such as XXX, XXY, and XYY, and can tell you the sex of the baby. The accuracy is >99% for Down syndrome, 97.4% for Edwards syndrome, and 93.8% for Patau syndrome. The redraw rate (if there isn't enough fetal DNA) is around 4% as far as I could make out.

IONA is 99% accurate at detecting all the trisomy syndromes but is unable to detect the other chromosomal disorders like Harmony. However, these other disorders are not as serious as Down/Edwards/Patau and many people with them are unaware until they are tested. The redraw rate for IONA is low, less than 0.5%. The labs are in Manchester and the company is based there as well.

Panorama can detect Down/Edwards/Patau and other chromosomal abnormalities like Harmony. The accuracy is >99% for Down and Patau syndromes and 96% for Edwards syndrome. I don't know the redraw rate. The labs are in the USA where the company is based so it will probably take longer to get the results than the other two tests.

There are other ones available and to be honest the most important things for me were the redraw rates and how long it took to get the results. I chose the IONA because the accuracy was higher than Harmony and the redraw rate lower. Both tests give you results in around a week. Bear in mind that labs only work Monday to Friday so if you have a test on Friday or the weekend it won't get processed until the following Monday.

They are only screening tests (not diagnostic) but they are much more accurate than the NHS test and don't carry any miscarriage risks like the CVS and amniocentesis. Some clinics will offer more than one test, in that case it might be best to phone them nearer the time and ask what their experience is (as a customer) for the different tests.

[MollyofTheFolly]

I have a feeling Panorama can be done as early as 9 weeks. I had a Harmony test (after high risk NHS screening results) when the labs were still US based and the results were back in 6 days. I think turn around is even quicker now they have London based labs.

[SuziePink]

I think Panorama can be done at 9 weeks but the best thing is to ask the clinic how long it takes and what the redraw rate is. The clinic I went to said Harmony and IONA were both a week despite being much nearer London than Manchester.

[CC81]

This is all super-useful - thanks so much.

I now feel much better informed! I know I can ask medical staff, but I'll feel more confident about WHAT to ask, armed with some of these details.

It's massively appreciated :)