The Nation - News from Feb. 20, 1986

A popular test kit for detecting birth defects in fetuses may produce too many incorrect results, unnecessarily forcing pregnant women to undergo possibly hazardous follow-up exams, researchers warned in the New England Journal of Medicine. The kit, made by Kallestad Laboratories Inc. of Austin, Tex., could produce positive results for spinal and brain defects twice as often as it should, according to the Foundation for Blood Research in Scarborough, Me. But a spokesman for Kallestad said the kit would produce accurate results as long as it was used properly.