Hundreds of healthy babies are being aborted each year due to miscarriage test errors
Shocking research has revealed that a baby a day is being unnecessarily aborted due to faulty miscarriage tests. As many as 400 errors are made with the procedures every year.
The findings are being blamed on doctors being too hasty to diagnose a miscarriage and reluctant to carry out a second scan to confirm thedeath. Researchers believe many of the destroyed embryos would reach full term.
'We found that the cut-off values were not entirely safe because they can be associated with misdiagnosis of miscarriage in a small number of cases, and our view is that there shouldn't be any risk,' says Prof Tom Bourne, from Imperial College London.
'I think a significant number is one, frankly. I think anyone who has a diagnosis of miscarriage and potentially has surgery would expect that that diagnosis is right.'
An estimated 500,000 women have miscarriages in Britain every year. Doctors perform an ultrasound scan to measure the size of the gestational sac and if it appears empty or the embryo shows no heart beat, a diagnosis on miscarriage is made.
New research, however, shows a high margin of error suggesting around 400 viable pregnancies are misdiagnosed in the UK each year compared to approximately 300 reported cot deaths.
'Women should not feel inhibited about seeking a second opinion,' says Dr Colin Duncan, from the University of Edinburgh.
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