This New IVF Technology Can Prevent Miscarriage

To cut the chances of miscarriage in In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), a new technology that can diagnose the abnormal chromosomes during the implantation was launched at a city hospital here on Thursday. The new time-lapse technology monitors the health of the embryos by capturing thousands of digital images since the moment of creation until implanting it in the uterus. Doctors are able to identify the embryos (usually out of three) that are well developing and have least chances of miscarriages to ensure live birth. The technique is popular in the western countries but not India. This is the first time it's available in Delhi.

It allows doctors to non-invasively identify the embryos which are less likely to have abnormal numbers of chromosomes and hence choosing the least risk embryo for implantation. "Having abnormal number of chromosomes is one of the major reasons for the IVF cycle to be unsuccessful," said Arvind Vaid, a IVF Specialist at city's Indira IVF Hospital, where the technique was launched. "This can either lead to failure in implantation in the womb or miscarriage in the later stages of pregnancy or child born with Down's syndrome and other genetic anomalies."

A healthy human embryo should contain 23 pairs of chromosomes. But any change to this number can lead to a reduced chance of a successful implantation. The technology offers exciting potential of a novel and non-invasive method of embryo selection with greatest chances of implantation through in-depth study of stages of embryo development.

"Embryos develop and grow in the incubator attached for the first five days and captures over 5,000 pictures to analyse the various stages of development," said a statement from the hospital, adding that further embryo development is monitored regularly and information analysed using a computer.

Earlier, the embryo used to be removed from the incubator once in a day to study the changes under microscope. This technology is advantageous over the conventional method.

"Depending on the method used, pictures can be captured with different time intervals. The shorter the time interval the more detailed information will be available for analysis," said the statement. "With the availability of inbuilt algorithm, the computer helps to choose the best embryos that stand a better chance of developing into a baby."