aCGH: Breakthrough Science for Healthy Babies

The IVF laboratory plays a crucial role in the success of infertility treatments. In the lab, a new baby’s life is initiated by first fertilizing the extracted egg with the collected sperm, and the resulting embryo is then transferred into the patient’s uterus.

Pacific Reproductive Center offers the most sophisticated laboratories outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment and staffed with a large team of highly skilled embryologists and geneticists. Our embryologists and geneticists all have advanced degrees, most with a doctorate in their field of expertise. At PRC, our embryologists personally handle every step of a patient’s treatment plan.  Your procedure (what is the correct word?) is in the best hands at all times with PRC. This is unique from some labs that employ technicians (with less training) to assist in the lab. As a result, these professionals possess superb skills in all aspects of IVF laboratory technologies.  

Pacific Reproductive Center is proud to be the first IVF center to offer in-house Array Comparative Genomic Hybridization (aCGH) in addition to our in-house Pre-implantation Genetic (PGD) lab, where the most advanced techniques are utilized to screen for genetic abnormalities and, in some cases, to identify and select a specific gender, if the family desires.  Having these labs within the center greatly minimizes the risk of misdiagnosis, reduces the cost and travel time for patients, and makes the timing of the treatment process more flexible and more manageable.

Our combination of advanced technologies along with the most skilled embryologists and geneticists deliver unsurpassed IVF laboratory services and the ability to achieve some of the highest pregnancy rates in the nation.

Currently, patients who utilize aCGH testing must delay embryo transfer while the testing of the cells are performed in a lab outside of their local fertility center.

Some testing locations can be found out of the country and may require the freezing of embryos and shipment of biopsied cells. The delay equates to an added emotional toll for couples and has additional financial implications.

PRC’s vested interest in the science of helping create families translates into patients receiving 24 hour results. aCGH allows PRC physicians to transfer fewer, healthier, fresh embryos, enhancing the chance of success for each family.

How to select the best embryo for transfer in IVF can also be assisted by close observation of the embryos while still in culture. PRC is among a select few IVF centers in the U.S. with the additional capacity to assess embryo viability via EmbryoScope—a new non-invasive approach to cellular assessment.  Our PRC EmbyroScope can identify which embryos are developing correctly at an earlier stage based on key morphology observations. This technique permits continuous time-lapse images of embryos to be studied to help determine the developmental competency of each.