A Chinese hospital has developed a new genetic diagnosing method that identifies IVF embryos with balanced translocation, a condition linked to recurrent miscarriages carried by one or both of the parents.
The Reproductive Medical Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University announced Tuesday the healthy birth of a baby girl, born on Dec. 28, 2016, after doctors used the Mapping Allele with Resolved Carrier State (MaReCS) technique before implantation.
The hospital in central China's Henan Province said the birth was the world's first successful use of MaReCS.
The method enables doctors to select IVF embryos that are free of balanced translocation, the chromosome mutation that causes miscarriage.
A team of doctors led by deputy director of the hospital Sun Yingpu used MaReCS diagnosis to identify how many of the couple's seven embryos conceived via IVF was normal. Only one embryo tested negative for balanced translocation.
Sun said MaReCS could also be used to help diagnose other chromosome mutations, which could stop the transmission of hereditary conditions.
