Atlas of Time Lapse Embryology by Alison Campbell, Simon Fishel

Since the 1970s and the birth of the world’s first IVF baby, Louise Brown, there have been several incremental technological advances affecting clinical embryology, such as advancements in culture media and ambient incubation conditions, and the occasional revolution, such as ICSI and embryo biopsy. Arguably, such advances offer improved treatment for specific patient groups who would otherwise have remained childless. During the last few years, a new technology has become available which already is delivering significant information on the dynamics of cleaving human preimplantation embryos cultured in vitro; and, importantly, evidence is gathering for quantifiable uplifts in the incidence of pregnancy. This technology includes the introduction of safe, sealed incubation systems, where the embryos can remain untouched for several days whilst being monitored by high-frequency time lapse imaging. The ability to acquire sequential, photographic, time lapse images of patients’ embryos is fast becoming a powerful, noninvasive embryo monitoring and selection tool. Although ‘time lapse cinematography’ was used to study fertilization and early human embryo kinetics more than 15 years ago, this technology is now possible using commercially available sophisticated systems for the routine clinical IVF setting which are described in Chapter 1.1