**Acronyms and abbreviations**


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**Author details**

Education, Manipal, India

of Higher Education, Mangalore, India

provided the original work is properly cited.

\* and B. Suresh Kumar Shetty2

\*Address all correspondence to: adithi.hegde@manipal.edu

1 Department of OBG, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher

2 Department of Forensic Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal Academy

© 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

Adithi Shetty1

*Obstetric Markers as a Diagnostic Forensic Tool DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97670* *Obstetric Markers as a Diagnostic Forensic Tool DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97670*

*Forensic Analysis - Scientific and Medical Techniques and Evidence under the Microscope*

still under research.

**7. Conclusions**

**Acknowledgements**

**Conflict of interest**

encouraging us to do more research.

**Acronyms and abbreviations**

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

mRNA Messenger ribonucleic acid

cffDNA Cell-free foetal DNA STR Short tandem repeat

hCG Human chorionic gonadotropin EDTA Ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid

SNPs Single nucleotide polymorphisms

**6. Future research avenues**

markers for paternity testing, play an important role in solving the investigations and cases. Amongst the tests performed to determine if the bloodstain is that of a pregnant woman, the detection of mRNA of hPL is superior to other DNA analysis methods. Amongst the non-invasive paternity testing methods which is gaining prominence, the SNP detection is far superior to the STR detection. The emergence of use of Microhaplotypes which would further simplify the paternity detection is

Obstetric markers in forensic diagnostics is an area of potential research. The possible areas would be to identify newer biomarkers which can be detected in bloodstains for a longer duration. Another potential area is to discover a technique

The field of forensic diagnostics has a widespread implication on solving cases related to pregnancy using specific obstetric markers. These markers are based on molecular technology. Bloodstains of pregnant women are best detected by RT PCR quantification of mRNA hPL. The ideal biomarkers for maternal alcohol abuse is still under investigation. Noninvasive Prenatal diagnostics is a helpful diagnostic aid as it does not harm the mother or fetus. Presently, SNP targets are being used for paternity detection and microhaplotypes as biomarkers are being investigated.

We are grateful to Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore and Manipal Academy

of Higher Education, Manipal for instilling in us a scientific temperament and

RT-PCR Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction PS-beta-G, TSG, PAPP-C (SP 1) Schwangerschaftspezifisches beta-1-Glykoprotein

which could estimate the gestational age from the blood stains obtained.

**128**
