London: Scientists claim to have developed a new in vitro fertilisation (IVF) test that detects faulty embryos and trebles a woman's chance of giving birth to a healthy baby.
The new technique involves taking a sample from embryos when they are five days old and checking each of its 23 pairs of chromosomes. Only the healthiest single embryo is implanted in the womb, say the scientists.
The method could spare thousands of couples the heartache of miscarriage as well as removing the risk that children conceived by fertility treatment have of conditions such as Down's syndrome, the 'Daily Mail' reported.
In fact, the test, called Chromosome Aneuploidy Screening, has been so successful that experts believe it will be routinely available to women undergoing IVF within the next three years.
The screening checks embryos for chromosome abnormalities. Any which are faulty are discarded, and only those which stand the best chance of developing into a healthy foetus are implanted back into the womb, say the scientists.
Trials have shown that up to 88 per cent of women receiving tested embryos give birth. This is more than treble the success rate of IVF only between 20 and 30 per cent of those undergoing treatment in Britain will have a baby.
The test, which was unveiled at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Denver, Colorado, costs 2,000 pounds a time, on top of the normal price of IVF of around 4,000 pounds.
Tony Rutherford, chairman of the British Fertility Society, said: "It's technically challenging but if held up in future research it is something we'd clearly like to see introduced in helping to select the best embryos to be transferred."
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