GETTING PREGNANCY OFF TO A GOOD STARTEeva™ — High-tech reproductive technology2013/12/11When embryos are selected in the process of in vitro fertilization, it is crucial to choose those that have the highest probability of developing into healthy babies. An objective test called “Eeva™” is helping embryologists to improve embryo selection and increase the odds of success.• Homepage of Eeva™• Lissa Goldenstein, CEO of AuxogynThe first child to be conceived with the aid of artificial fertilization was born in 1978, and by the end of 2012 some five million babies (according to the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology) had come into the world this way. Behind this figure is the fact that in most cases the happy event was preceded by a tearful struggle to have a baby. The IVF procedure (where an egg is fertilized by sperm outside of the body to produce an embryo) overcomes certain fertility disorders. However, the costs associated with the procedure can be high. For example, in Germany it costs around €3,000 per in vitro fertilization cycle; in the U.S. it costs $12,500 on average; in Japan the figure is about $4,000. The embryo lab conditions can make a big difference in the overall pregnancy rate. The better the quality control and assessment of the techniques and procedures at the embryology and andrology laboratories, the higher will be the ability to objectively choose the embryos with the highest implantation potential, and the greater the chances of success. A special microscope makes digital images of the embryos© AuxogynOptimized search for the best embryoThis is where the non-invasive and computer-aided “Early Embryo Viability Assessment” or “Eeva™” test comes in. Eeva™ was developed by Auxogyn Inc., a U.S. company that is advancing the field of reproductive health through its uniquely combined knowledge of early human developmental biology, advanced computer vision technology, and best clinical practices. Eeva™ is designed to help medical staff quickly identify, on day three of the culture, the best embryos with higher viability that will generate blastocysts, potentially increasing the chances for embryo implantation. This can facilitate a possible pregnancy with a higher specificity than does morphology assessment alone. For maximizing the chances of in vitro fertilization being successful, it is essential to objectively select the embryos to transfer back into the uterine cavity that will have the highest chances of implantation to generate a pregnancy and eventually a baby.Tracking the cycle of cell divisionsScientists have observed that embryos that follow a certain timeframe for the cleavage from one to two and from two to four cells show higher viability and greater implantation potential. “It was necessary to validate this discovery in a large prospective clinical trial,” says Lissa Goldenstein, the CEO of Auxogyn. “An interdisciplinary team of software and technology specialists, embryologists, and clinical physicians worked on the trial for around two years.” In the first validation study, after morphology grading deemed several embryos suitable for transfer or freezing, embryologists using Eeva™ increased their ability to detect non-viable embryos — those which will not develop into blastocysts — by a factor of three. Eeva™ was able to predict which embryos would not produce blastocyst formation with an accuracy of 85 percent, and the accuracy of predictions regarding embryos that would become blastocysts increased from 34 to 55 percent. The Eeva™ test analyzes the development of embryos and predicts their development potential© Getty ImagesDirect data flow from the incubator to the computer screenThe heart of the Eeva™ test is a microscope that is equipped with a time-lapse camera with darkfield illumination that fits into most standard incubators for embryos. In the previous standard procedure, embryos were removed from standard incubators at predetermined times over several days in order to examine their morphological appearance and correlate it with quality criteria under the microscope. Embryo selection was based on these examinations and on the subjective judgments of the embryologists — basically, good or bad quality was deduced from the good or bad morphological appearance of the embryo. To be able to do embryo scoring it was necessary to take the embryos out of the incubator and put them under the microscope several times during the process of culture. This procedure could potentially disturb embryo development. Thanks to Eeva™, embryos can remain in the protective environment of the incubator and be observed directly through a microscope inside the incubator that sends real-time information to a computer system. Data collected in this way and coupled with image-processing software enables embryologists to analyze the kinetics of embryo development and provide an objective evaluation and an automatic recommendation of the embryo
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