EmbryoScope™

EmbryoScope™

During their culture in the Embryology lab, your embryos are kept safe in incubators with optimal and controlled environment conditions. However, to check embryo development, the Embryologists need to take them out of the incubators at specific points of development to assess them under a microscope. Taking them out of the controlled environment in which they are comfortable can expose the embryos to stress and fluctuations which may negatively impact on their development.

The EmbryoScope™ time-lapse system allows us to monitor your embryos through the full course of their development without the need to take them out of the incubator. This avoids potential damage to the embryos, as they stay in the incubator within controlled environment throughout their development.

Moreover, the specially designed EmbryoScope™ incubator with a built-in camera and microscope takes an image of your embryos every ten minutes. As a result, time-lapse videos of individual embryos are generated over the two to six days they remain inside the EmbryoScope™ whilst the embryos themselves stay undisturbed and in a highly optimised and stable culture environment. Advanced software including the predictive Known Implantation Data (KID) Score algorithm allows us to use the information from the EmbryoScope™ to select the best embryo or embryos for use in a fresh or frozen embryo transfer.

Choosing the embryos with the highest chances

Observing features of early embryo development is an important part of the process of evaluating its further developmental potential. The information gained from using EmbryoScope™ ensures we have the best information possible to decide which embryos to transfer. This is a key factor for obtaining a healthy on-going pregnancy. A decision support tool is available, which was developed using information about the characteristics of embryos which are known to result in pregnancy (KID Score).

Is EmbryoScope™ for me?

Using the information gained with EmbryoScope™ has the potential to improve IVF success rates. It is not suitable for everyone but has proven to be significantly beneficial in most circumstances.

• Patients with a high number of embryos, because it gives us more information to make a better selection. Being able to select a single embryo with the highest development potential allows for similar pregnancy rates as multiple transfers while lowering the risks associated with avoidable multiple pregnancy.
• Patients with recurrent miscarriage, as it has reported to significantly reduce miscarriage rate when compared with standard incubation methods.
• Older patients, as improved pregnancy rates have been reported for patients of all ages when using EmbryoScope™.

What are the benefits?

The EmbryoScope™ time-lapse technology system has multiple benefits:

• EmbryoScope™ supports better embryo development by providing an undisturbed culture environment.
• EmbryoScope™ supports improved IVF and ICSI treatment by providing us with a better basis to identifying the embryos with the best chance of resulting in a pregnancy. Thanks to the time-lapse technology we can see the whole embryo development, which helps us detect any abnormalities in cell division times and developmental behaviour.
• EmbryoScope™ is the most widely adopted time-lapse system worldwide with documented improvements in clinical outcome.

To find out more about EmbryoScope™ and how it can improve your IVF treatment, please contact us