Team Miracle at Cyprus IVF Centre is delighted to announce the arrival of the EmbryoScope+

Time-lapse system. We are the only hospital in the whole of Cyprus who will be offering the EmbryoScope+  facility.

The EmbryoScope+ is the most advanced incubator available on the IVF market today. It maintains the necessary physiological conditions required by an embryo while it is developing in the IVF laboratory and mimics the natural environment of the mother’s body.

The EmbryoScope+ is a fully integrated time-lapse imaging system.

With time-lapse technology, Team Miracle embryologist are able to monitor your embryos through the full course of their development without removing them from the safe environment of the incubator. The resulting film sequence can reveal critical events that are often missed in the “snap-shot” glimpses of conventional microscopy, allowing you to make more informed decisions. EmbryoViewer software allows you to perform advanced embryo analysis to improve the selection of embryos most suited for transfer and cryopreservation.

Keeping  your  embryos  safe

In traditional IVF, the embryos will be kept in a strictly controlled environment in heated incubators.

At Cyprus IVF Centre, we use modern benchtop incubators to provide the best quality for the developing embryos. Each patient’s embryos have a different section in the incubator, and so when the embryos for one couple need to be checked, other patients’ embryos are not affected.

However, the majority of other IVF clinics use large old fashioned incubators where all of the embryos are kept in a single compartment. This means that every time a patient’s embryos are removed, all of the embryos in the incubator are exposed to environmental changes.

Let your embryos grow in an undisturbed environment

During IVF with natural incubation, the embryos have to be removed from the incubator on a daily basis to monitor their development, and morphological observations will be made at that time. Removal from the incubator results in humidity, air pressure and temperature changes which can be harmful to the embryo.

With time-lapse your embryos remain protected in the EmbryoScope+  incubator and stay undisturbed in their stable and warm environment for the entire culture duration. This is a massive advantage of using the Embryoscope incubator along with your IVF in Cyprus.

Observing features of early embryo development is essential for when IVF professionals evaluate the embryo’s potential to implant and become a successful pregnancy. A large number of new studies have shown that the cell division pattern of embryos is extremely important when determining which embryos have the best potential for successful implantation and development into a healthy pregnancy. Traditional evaluation is likely to miss more than 70% of embryos that have an abnormal number of nuclei, but with EmbryoScope+  your Team Miracle embryologist does not miss a thing.

There is an increasing body of evidence that proves that specific cell time points and events are particularly important for predicting further development potential. By assessing the state of the embryo at these certain time points, we can select the best embryos for the embryo transfer. It has been shown that embryos with specific division times and developmental patterns can have up to a 15% – 20% better chance of pregnancy.

These time points can only be recorded entirely if monitored by a time-lapse camera. Traditional routine observations under the microscope cannot show all of the time points since they vary from embryo to embryo. To catch the important development under a standard microscope, the embryo would have to spend more time out of the incubator than in it, and that is practically impossible if the embryo is going to survive.

At Cyprus IVF Centre, we offer blastocyst transfer whenever possible. The reason for this is that blastocysts generally have a better chance of developing into a successful pregnancy when compared with day 3 embryos. However, in some situations, the embryos will not be strong enough to develop for 5 days in the laboratory, or there may not be enough embryos to take the risk of waiting for an extra 2 days before the transfer.

Without the EmbryoScope+ it’s not possible to determine which day 3 embryos have the best chance of continuing to grow.

With time-lapse videos gained from using EmbryoScope+, your Team Miracle embryologist has the best information possible about the entire embryo development history to decide which embryos to transfer or freeze for future use.

However, the EmbryoScope+  serves as an excellent tool for predicting the best embryos for transfer without the need to leave the embryos for extended periods in culture. The Team Miracle embryologists can view the time-lapse sequence of development to check if the embryo has divided symmetrically and at the relevant time points. If, for example, an embryo has developed slowly or divided from 2 to 5 cells instead of 2 to 4 cells then it will not be selected for the embryo transfer.

Advanced software support

EmbryoScope has software tools that help Team Miracle embryologists make the best choice. Information which has been gathered from thousands of IVF cycles performed worldwide can be used to identify development patterns which are most likely to have a successful result.

The only guaranteed method for detecting chromosome abnormalities is pre-implantation genetic diagnosis which is a separate treatment offered by Team Miracle at Cyprus IVF Centre. Please see our PGD and gender selection pages for more information.

For patients who do not wish to undertake PGD treatment, the EmbryoScope+ could be beneficial. There is increasing evidence to suggest that the EmbryoScope+ can be used to help predict which embryos might be chromosomally abnormal. Chromosomally normal and abnormal embryos react differently and have variations in their division time and pattern. We can record this information with EmbryoScope+  time-lapse images and use the video of development to predict which embryos are more likely to be chromosomally normal.

One of the most nerve-wracking parts of IVF treatment abroad, or indeed anywhere, is worrying about how your embryos are developing in the time between egg collection and embryo transfer. With traditional IVF, embryologists prefer not to remove the embryos from the incubators too often because it can affect their development. This means that you don’t get regular updates during the procedure.

With the EmbryoScope+ technology, you can get information regularly throughout your time in Cyprus which will make your Cyprus IVF treatment a much more relaxed experience.

Besides, we can provide you with a CD containing the images of your future babies to take home with you. It will be a very special addition to the family photo album!

EmbryoScope+  technology is beneficial for all patients having IVF in Cyprus. Regardless of whether you are using your own eggs or donor eggs, if you have IVF or gender selection, EmbryoScope+ can be used to ensure that the best embryos are transferred in order to maximise the chance of success during your first cycle at Cyprus IVF Centre.

For patients who already have children or single women who wish only to have a singleton pregnancy and don’t want to face the possibility of twins, Embryoscope+ images can help us select the one best embryo from those available. Any extra embryos can be frozen for use in the future if the patient wishes to return for a sibling. See our cryopreservation page for more information.

Best cultivation conditions for your embryos, choose the cultivation in the EmbryoScope+.

EmbryoScope Plus has been imported for being used by Team Miracle in our clinic which is the 1st and the one and only machine in Cyprus.

This is for the better quality and better potential of embryos’ culturing process and help to increase pregnancy and success rate for infertility treatment.