Why use EMBRACE test?
- It avoids embryo biopsies and therefore reduces biopsy costs, making it accessible to a greater number of people.
- It does not require biopsy-trained embryologists, removing a barrier to offering aneuploidy analysis.
- A non-invasive solution for patients, giving them peace of mind and more effective treatment.
Scientific Evidence
This new test is based on our recent study ‘Multicenter prospective study of concordance between embryo cell-free DNA and trophectoderm biopsies from 1,301 human blastocysts’ published in AJOG.
- This is the largest study to date assessing ploidy concordance per embryo between invasive and non-invasive PGT-A.
- The study had two main aims – to evaluate the concordance and reproducibility of testing embryo cell-free DNA versus trophectoderm DNA obtained from the same embryo in a large sample of day 6 and day 7 blastocysts, and to assess the concordance rates with the inner cell mass of the blastocyst in a subset of blastocysts donated for research.
- It is the only truly non-invasive protocol, without any previous manipulation of the embryo. No previous assisted hatching, biopsy or vitrification was permitted before media collection.
- Embryo cell-free DNA analysis shows high reliability in a multicentre study involving different culture and clinical conditions including: different patient clinical backgrounds, ovarian stimulation protocols, culture media, incubators and embryo quality.
The concordance rate was on average 78.2% (ranging from 72.5% to 86.3% in different centres), with no significant between-centre differences related to culture conditions or blastocyst quality.
In addition, in a subgroup of 81 blastocysts, comparison of the inner cell mass (ICM) with the embryo cell-free DNA in spent blastocyst medium (SBM) and the trophectoderm (TE) biopsies has shown similar concordance rates, 84.4% and 87.5% respectively.