Technologies advance rapidly – all of us can observe that daily.
These advances do not escape the assisted reproduction field either. One of the techniques which evolved the most in the past few years is the preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). It consists of the analysis of various cells of an embryo to see whether it possesses some genetically driven disease or chromosomic anomaly.
Until recently, this analysis was only possible through embryo biopsy, i.e., we had to open the embryo using a laser and extract cells to analyse them later (invasive PGD). Over the past two years, technological advances changed so that now we can study the cells which the embryo pushes out into the culture medium used in the embryology lab (non-invasive PGD). This type of analysis of embryos provides a trustworthy result without damaging them.
The main advantage of the non-invasive PGD is that we do not need to do the embryo biopsy, which can cause collateral damage. Although it is not as reliable as the invasive analysis (96%), the reliability of the results is approximately 85%.
This non-invasive PGD, like all last-generation technologies, still has some limitations that the invasive PGD does not have.
It cannot detect genetic anomalies in the embryo but can find chromosomic anomalies. Namely, it cannot detect diseases like cystic fibrosis but can detect disorders like Down syndrome. At the chromosomic level, the non-invasive PGD cannot recognise some structural anomalies, for example, translocations.
All these limitations will soon cease to intervene, and non-invasive PGD will take over the invasive PGD until the latter disappears.
As Arthur Clarke said – “Magic’s just Science that we don’t understand yet.”
If you would like to solve your doubts about this or start a different treatment (artificial insemination, in vitro fertilisation (IVF)) you can contact us by email at info@centromedicomanzanera.com or by sending a contact form on our website: https://centromedicomanzanera.com/en/formulario_en/.
Daniel García
Embryologist
IMAGE: https://www.clinicasfertilidad.com/reproduccion-asistida/diagnostico-genetico-preimplantacional
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