Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) is a recently developed technique to detect genetic anomalies in the embryo before it is transferred to the woman’s uterus.
This technique consists in extracting from a cell of the embryo during the first phases of development, 6-8 cells, and analysing their genetic content. With the information obtained via this analysis, healthy embryos which can be transferred are selected.
Genetic analysis which can be carried out through PGD include:
- The study of aneuploidies in older women, which can detect Down’s Syndrome amongst others.
- The analysis of structural alterations of the chromosomes: chromosomal translocation and inversion.
- Study of monogenic diseases, to detect, for example, Cystic Fibrosis.
It is specially indicated for infertile patient who have a prior history of spontaneous abortions which show them to be carriers of translocations, inversions or other chromosomal anomalies, monogenic diseases, patients with more than three cycles of IVF-ET or ICSI-ET without pregnancy or older patients.
