RISING DOUBTS: The IVF conception (top); test-tude babies

Test tube babies are the last hope of many of the nearly four crore infertile couples in India. But now their silver lining has a cloud.

It was always believed that no matter where sperm met egg-in a woman's body as nature decreed, or in a Petri dish-the baby born would not show the difference.

Not so. A couple of studies recently published by the New England Journal of Medicine found that in infants conceived through assisted reproductive technologies (art), the risk of birth defects like heart and kidney abnormalities and cleft palate is twice that in babies made the "natural" way. One of the studies conducted in Britain and Australia concludes that the risk of birth defects in test babies is 8.6 per cent, which is twice the 4.2 per cent risk in naturally born babies.

The other study, conducted by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, shows that babies made the art way are at a 2.6 times higher risk of low birth weight, which can lead to congenital or cardiac problems.

Given that there are more than 30,000 test tube babies in India the studies have serious implications here. K.K. Roy, infertility specialist at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, says the risk is higher with Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), where the sperm is directly injected into the egg.

While these studies must be taken seriously, they are not conclusive. "One must take into account that test tube babies are monitored more closely," says Dr Anirudhha Malpani, an IVF specialist. There is still a 90 per cent chance that the baby conceived in the test tube will be healthy, so the last hope remains.

-Prerna Singh Bindra

Helping Sounds

TEACHER: A patient uses Pragya

Paediatricians and psychiatrists at AIIMS have developed a software package, Pragya, to help dyslexics with the help of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Pragya is based on acoustic modification of phonemes and sound. The package provides audio-visual stimulus to the child. The stimuli help the child differentiate between similar sounding words, test language skills and identify shapes. The kit has a game in Hindi and others in English.

Pragya is not meant just for dyslexics but will also be a learning aid for children who stammer, are slow learners or have difficulty acquiring language skills. Studies to identify the precise impact of the kit on the child's learning process have just began.

The kit is available at AIIMS.

Detecting the Killer: TB is a deadly disease but can be cured. Millions succumb to it because it is not detected at all. The present means of detection are not foolproof. The sputum test and the lung X-Ray used for diagnosis can only detect TB of the lung, but the disease can manifest itself in any organ of the body. The life sciences department of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi has now established that urine samples can show proteins released by the TB bacteria mycobacterium tuberculosis, says Rajiv Saxena, dean, School of Life Sciences, JNU. Researchers used the test on patients already detected with TB. About 75 per cent of the samples tested positive.

Bio Smoke: Want to kick butt, but can't? Biotechnology has an answer for diehard nicotine addicts. Biotech cigarettes with tobacco genetically altered to be low in nicotine may hit the market next year.
A US Agriculture Department study confirmed recently that the biotech tobacco has low levels of nicotine and also poses little risk to the environment. The tobacco was altered genetically to block the production of nicotine in the plant's roots. Those who have lit the new smoke say that the biotech avatar tastes and smells just like the conventional cigarettes. But critics argue that the cigarette would still contain very toxic substances.

Heart Saver: Sudden cardiac deaths are the single largest cause of natural deaths, and their incidence is higher in India than world averages. Now, there are plans to introduce Automatic External Defibrillators (AED) in aircraft and public places. "The AED takes corrective action immediately and is 99 per cent effective in correcting life-threatening heart rhythms" says Atul Bhatia, consultant cardioelectro-physiologist with Escorts Hospital, Delhi.