Highest Resolution Images Ever of Eggs, Sperm, and Embryos captured using 5K ultra-HD video.

High resolution image of 5day old human blastocyst 

Morphology is the gold standard by which we can assess the quality of embryos and gametes for success of various fertility treatments.

Imaging science in Reproductive Medicine has not made much significant advances since the last decade. Current options consist of either direct visualization through microscope objectives (limited magnification) or image capture via CCD/CMOS chip and inspection on a monitor (limited resolution).

Doctors attending the recent American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, got the opportunity to visualize first-ever 5K ultra-HD video footage of eggs, sperm, and embryos. It amounts to 14 million pixels per frame, 7 times more than the 1080p Full HD living room television.

The man behind this amazing achievement is Steven F. Palter, MD, a fertility specialist and scientific director at Gold Coast IVF in Woodbury, NY. CDC recently recognized Gold Coast IVF for having highest success rate in USA.

Dr. Palter designed a coupling system to make the RED Camera compatible with an embryo microscope. RED is ultra-high-resolution digital camera company that has revolutionized the movie industry in Hollywood.

860 recordings of eggs, sperm and embryos were made during IVF and ICSI procedures at 400x-960x magnification. The final images then were magnified digitally many times more on 55 inch 4k observation screens, producing the highest magnification and resolution video of these human cells which yielded observations of new cellular details. Movement of individual sperm was observed using high frame that simplified selection.

Dr. Palter said “The images are the sharpest, most revealing images of eggs, sperm, and embryos ever created anywhere. At this level, we are exploring a new frontier of knowledge about human reproduction. It’s an unexplored, uncharted world and we saw new details of the cells never seen before.”

Cellular details and image quality was far superior than what can be viewed with standard microscope. Although, no new structure was identified, the new 5K ultra-HD images could better delineate the morphology of sperms, eggs and embryos for selecting and improving the results of ARTs.

Further validation studies are being carried out currently.

Full text of article in Fertility and Sterility Journal can be accessed here.