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Choice of quality single embryo a must in IVF for future babies -The Hindu

(7 April 2009)

Mumbai (PTI): To ensure healthy future babies produced through assisted reproductive technique or In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), it is important to maintain quality and number of the embryo impregnated at a time, a noted Denmark-based embryologist has said.

Today, across the globe, almost one million babies are born using assisted reproductive techniques and in most of the places, multiple embryo impregnation (multiple pregnancy) is practiced for avoiding failures, Lars Johansson, who trained Indian practicing embryologists and IVF doctors here for last two weeks, said. "In multiple pregnancies, lot of risks are involved and the cost for the family also goes up. So the specialists should do good treatment, go for good embryos and a single baby," Johansson told PTI. The aim of the doctor should be always to select a single healthy embryo, he said. In Scandenavian countries, the IVF specialists could achieve single embryo impregnation in 80 per cent of their cases and in Europe from January 2009, the experts are trying for this figure as they have reached only 40 per cent single embryo implantation into mother's uterus. The ultimate goal for the embryologists is to have single embryo implantation and in India, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines has recommended not more than three embryos at a time, Director of Trivector Scientific, Dilip Patil, who runs the course for Indian specialists with hand-on training with modern gadgets, said. Training to the IVF doctors and embryologists are not enough. It is essential that all the laboratories in the world have standard practices with uniform guidelines, Johansson, who is the Director, Clinical Embryology of MediCult, said. The IVF clinics should not compete with each other to claim things which are impossible, he cautioned. The clinics can practice latest technique of vitrification (preserving without crystal formation) for the preservation of extra eggs. Patil said there was no accreditation processes in India although ICMR guidelines are fairly good. But in order to attain high quality management in this area of assisted reproduction we as a private company are trying to impart training to Indian doctors with all the latest equipment and techniques here with the help of experts from abroad and India. Johansson, who is involved in the accreditation of several labs across the globe from middle-east to Europe to Australia, also pointed that good clinic practices (including screening for HIV /AIDS and other diseases) requires training of not only doctors and embryologists but the technicians, lab assistants and even cleaners and sweepers. Talking about accreditation process, he said the toughest one is in Canada. Canadian accreditation is a detailed, expensive and the best one, he said. Patil said if India has to enter into medical tourism for IVF babies in a big way, high clinic standard has to be maintained. There will be demand for transparency and traceability of the donor at any given point of time. When asked how much the training costs, Patil said, "Trivector conducts two week quality management training for Rs 60,000 with experts mostly from Scandinavian country." Patil has recently started a sperm bank (Cryos India) here where the sperms are kept under quarantine for six months before going for long-term banking. "This rules out any disease in genext. There is no shortcut in the procedure. We are strict with six month quarantine of the sperm. If we find any possible HIV cases, we do not take donation from that person and at the same time counsel that person about his condition," he said. In the last six months, the sperm bank was getting a lot of young persons for banking their sperms. Since, thorough screening is done through quarantine, there the rejection rate of sperm collection is about 70 to 80 per cent, Patil said.

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