Cryogenic chips could end IVF mix-ups
(cz) An electronic ID tag that works even when cryogenically frozen could help prevent some of the mix-ups in IVF clinics that can cause heartbreak for would-be parents.
Last week, a couple from south Wales, UK, made headlines worldwide when they revealed that their last viable embryo had been taken from cryogenic storage at an IVF clinic in Cardiff and mistakenly implanted into another woman. The recipient, on learning of the bungle, terminated her pregnancy.
There were eight similar “class A” IVF mix-ups in 2008 in the UK fertility industry, according to its regulator, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Class A means the wrong eggs, sperm or embryo were used in an IVF procedure. Such mix-ups occur when eggs, sperm or embryos are mislabelled due to slips in a lab’s verification procedures.
Part of the solution is a system called IVF Witness, which constantly monitors the identity of the gamete and embryo containers that are brought near to each other on the IVF lab bench - sounding an alarm if eggs about to be introduced to sperm, say, have come from the wrong woman.
The system, made by Research Instruments (RI) of Falmouth, UK, is installed in 16 of the nation’s 90 IVF clinics. It uses 15-millimetre- square, sticky-backed plastic radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to label any dishes or vials that eggs, sperm or embryos are placed into. The tags house a memory chip and a coiled copper radio antenna. Each tag’s memory is programmed with a unique ID code that is transmitted by its antenna when an ultra-low-power radio pulse interrogates the chip.
As a sample moves through the IVF process, the ID code of every container it is placed in is logged, providing a secure ID audit trail. So, in theory, only sperm and eggs from the right couples can be brought together, and the resulting embryos will be implanted into the right woman. more…
From: »New Scientist«