CU Fertility Clinic Installs World's First Commercially Available Cryo Sentinel to Better Protect Families' Frozen Embryos & Eggs

DENVER, Dec. 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The CU Advanced Reproductive Medicine (CU ARM) IVF laboratory is the first embryology lab in the world, outside of testing, to acquire the Cryo Sentinel monitoring system, improving the safety of patients' cryopreserved eggs, embryos and sperm.

This effort by the Denver clinic follows major cryopreservation storage accidents in 2018 in Ohio and California clinics that caused widespread alarm among the many hopeful parents who entrust their frozen specimens to fertility clinics nationwide. Each clinic is ultimately responsible for its cryopreservation system.

"We are honored and excited to work with CU ARM for our first hospital install of Cryo Sentinel," said Thomas Elliott, Cryo Sentinel developer. "Working with a university hospital is a wonderful opportunity, and a very important step to show the positive impact of this new technology."

The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology found that more than 10,000 individuals used egg freezing alone in 2017, an increase from 2016. This trend is expected to continue, and safety of the specimens is a top priority for CU ARM.

"We are acutely aware that these cryopreserved tissues in our care represent the hopes and dreams of a family for many dealing with infertility, or for young women preserving their eggs for future use," said Dr. Liesl Nel-Themaat, CU ARM IVF Lab Director. "The Cryo Sentinel triggers an alert the moment the tank integrity is compromised, providing ample time to move the cryopreserved specimens."

Cryo Sentinel is unlike anything else on the market, said Nel-Themaat. Liquid nitrogen storage tanks can be empty for an extended amount of time before the conventional internal temperature alarm is triggered, giving very little time to respond. When the vacuum of the containers fails, it first causes the outside of the tanks to cool. This is what Cryo Sentinel's thermal imaging monitors - providing a live video warning before the nitrogen level has been seriously reduced, jeopardizing the frozen tissues.

"We can now look at live video of our cryostorage room from anywhere in the world, and the constant video logging provides data so we can determine what went wrong in the first place," said Nel-Themaat. "Cryo Sentinel also monitors on a larger scale by viewing many tanks at once, rather than one internal sensor in each tank."

"Cryo Sentinel provides IVF lab personnel 24-hour access to live thermographic video of their cryogenic dewars storing embryo samples. Staff are alerted to temperature variations that may indicate pending failure of these dewars," said Craig Hoffmann, Cryo Sentinel Vice President of Sales and Operations. "With this proactive information, staff can make critical actions, saving time that could be critical."

Media Contact: Vanguard Communications, Attn: CU ARM | 303-382-2999 | [email protected]

SOURCE CU Fertility Clinic