Obstetric outcome of pregnancies resulting from embryos biopsied for pre-implantation diagnosis of inherited disease.

OBJECTIVE

Pre-implantation diagnosis of inherited disease is now a viable option for some couples at risk of transmitting inherited disorders to their children. Since the pregnancy begins knowing that the embryo is not at risk, the need for repeated terminations is eliminated. Up to 25% of the embryo is removed during the procedure, and so it is important to study the resulting pregnancies. Here we report on the obstetric outcome of our first 16 pregnancies resulting from embryo biopsy and preimplantation diagnosis of inherited disease.

SETTING

Teaching hospital.

SAMPLE

The first 16 pregnancies (12 singletons and 4 twins) following pre-implantation diagnosis.

RESULTS

Three singleton pregnancies were lost in the first trimester. Of the remaining pregnancies, two had no prenatal diagnosis, six cases of X-linked disease had the sex confirmed by ultrasound and chorionic villus sampling was performed in the remaining five. All the singleton pregnancies had an uneventful antenatal course and the birthweights and Apgar scores of the babies were normal. The twin pregnancies presented obstetric complications but these were not unusual.

CONCLUSIONS

Fifteen healthy infants were born, but for the foreseeable future pre-implantation diagnosis pregnancies should be closely followed up.