by Louise-Anne Geddes, Mindful Mum, 4th May 2012

The Cambridgeshire based company Blue Gnome has developed the test through rigorous clinical testing, described by leading experts as a ‘breakthrough’.  Their study was published in The Journal of Molecular Cytogenetics by Yang et al, and has ‘demonstrated that selectively implanting euploid embryos, with a normal number of chromosomes, significantly increases pregnancy rates’.

Random testing

The clinical trial randomly and blindly tested 103 IVF cycles.  The treatment group of 55 cycles had an ongoing pregnancy rate after 20 weeks of 69.1% compared with the rate of 41.7% in the control group.  Blue Gnome said that ‘This extremely promising result provides direct evidence that 24sure analysis can deliver a 65% increase in pregnancy rates, even in younger patients with more favourable IVF outcomes. Further randomised studies are needed and are underway.  Nick Haan, CEO of Blue Gnome said:

“This study provides crucial evidence that 24 chromosome aneuploidy screening, using 24sure, can offer a dramatic benefit to IVF success rates. While further studies are still needed, this result is incredibly exciting because it indicates for the first time that 24 chromosome screening and single embryo transfer has the potential to become the default standard of care for all IVF cycles worldwide.”

Experts in the field

The new research has been welcomed by leading experts in the field including Prof. Simon Fishel, Managing Director, CARE Fertility Group, UK who said:

“This is a breakthrough clinical study, showing for the first time how this technology, which CARE helped pioneer, can greatly improve IVF success rates for younger patients. Here at Care Fertility we have already shown that pre-implantation genetic screening has benefits for older patients, and those with complex histories, so it is great to see the scope of this technology could benefit many more patients”.

Source:  Blue Gnome, 24sure increases pregnancy rates in study, 3^rd May 2012

Photography: Torsten Mangner @Flickr