The Reproductive Center at Vinmec Times City International Hospital has allowed couples bearing the Thalassemia gene to have healthy offspring using the pre-implantation screening technique in assisted reproductive technology (PGD). future genetic disease risk will be decreased.
Screening for the thalassemia gene in the embryo
When she was just a year old, Nguyen Thanh A., the first child of Nguyen Thi H. (34 years old, Hanoi), and her husband, was found to have Thalassemia, also known as hemolytic anemia. Due to the fact that Ms. H. and her husband both carry the thalassemia gene, the infant received the illness from her parents. In Vietnam, the prevalence of this hereditary condition might reach up to 10-15% of the population.
Baby A's health is still significantly worse than that of her peers, and despite receiving treatment at top hospitals in the field and in accordance with the accepted protocol, she is very ill, underweight, and pale. The child is 5 years old, but his or her physical and mental growth is slower than that of children his or her age. As a result, the youngster frequently needs blood transfusions and iron chelation at the hospital.
Ms. H and her husband visited Vinmec Fertility Center when they wanted to have a second child and wished for a healthy child. She and her husband made the decision to use the PGD preimplantation diagnostic process after carefully considering the medical professionals' advice.
This is the only approach that has been found to assist couples harboring the Thalassemia gene to conceive a healthy baby without the gene, said MSc Le Thi Phuong Lan, Deputy Director of Vinmec Center for Reproductive Support. thalassemia illness.
If a couple uses natural birth control, the child has a 50% chance of having Thalassemia and a 25% chance of carrying the illness gene. Just 25% of cases are in good health. Prior to being implanted in the mother's uterus, preimplantation diagnosis will help choose healthy, disease-free embryos.
This cutting-edge method helped Mr and Mrs.H to have a healthy baby boy weighing 3.5 kg was born to her and her spouse. The infant is currently more than a year old and is maturing regularly.
How is PGD performed?
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is an assisted reproductive technology procedure. Dr. Le Phuong Lan claims that in order to undertake PGD, couples who carry the Thalassemia gene must use IVF to conceive a child. The blastocyst stage of the embryo is reached in culture before a biopsy is performed to remove some cells. The genetic engineering of these cells is then used to ascertain if the embryos are disease- or gene-carrying. During the frozen embryo transfer cycle, healthy embryos are returned to the mother's womb.
This is a challenging method that calls for not just sophisticated machinery and equipment, but also in-depth expertise and abilities from medical professionals.
Following IVF at Vinmec, screening results for Ms. H. and her husband revealed that 5 of the 7 embryos were healthy and free of disease genes. Ms. H. fell pregnant shortly after the first embryo transfer, and the Center's medical staff closely watched over her throughout her pregnancy. The infant was born without inheriting Thalassemia from either parent because the condition had been ruled out before the embryo transfer.
Ms. H and her husband are one of the first four in vitro fertilization instances to be successful after embryos were screened to rule out the Thalassemia gene. All four couples have chosen healthy, disease-gene-free embryos. Currently, 3 out of 4 couples have successfully transferred healthy embryos; 1 of these couples has given birth, while the other 2 are both more than 12 weeks pregnant. Along with diagnosing and screening for this genetic disorder, Vinmec Fertility Center has also looked for common chromosomal abnormalities like Down syndrome, Turner syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome, etc.
Please dial HOTLINE for more information or register for an appointment HERE. Download MyVinmec app to make appointments faster and to manage your bookings easily.
