A British team has for the first time successfully used a new "test tube" fertilization technique that better predicts which of a woman's eggs will most likely result in pregnancy. The treatment combines currently used prenatal screening with a new computer program that can scan the eggs for flaws in chromosomes that may lead to miscarriage.
The technique involves surgically removing eggs from a woman's ovaries and combining them with sperm in the lab. Doctors then pick the best embryos -- typically one or two -- and implant them in the woman's uterus.
The challenge is choosing the best embryo. Currently, doctors often use a microscope to pick the best shaped embryos, instead of checking the DNA, Fishel said. "We can now look at all the chromosomes in an embryo in real time so we can put forward a fresh embryo after looking at its chromosomes," he said. Montreal Gazette
Editor: This article confuses eggs with embryos and prenatal testing with pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).
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