Pioneer in New Fertilization Technique to Set Up Clinic at Irvine Medical Center
Dr. Ricardo Asch, an acclaimed infertility specialist who pioneered an alternative technique to in vitro, or test tube, fertilization, will join the medical faculty at UC Irvine in September and establish a fertility clinic at the yet-to-be-built Irvine Medical Center, UCI and American Medical International officials announced Thursday.
Asch, currently associated with the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, is renowned for developing the GIFT fertilization technique, in which the woman’s eggs and the man’s sperm are injected into the woman’s Fallopian tubes, where fertilization normally occurs.
Asch’s move is expected to bring prestige to UCI and the emerging Irvine Medical Center, which will be built by AMI, an operator of a large nationwide chain of hospitals, and will be affiliated with the university. His presence is expected to attract infertile couples from outside the community to the clinic.
Few Use Procedure
Only a handful of doctors nationwide perform the recently developed GIFT technique, which has had a 31% successful pregnancy rate among the 115 cases at San Antonio, Asch said. GIFT stands for Gamete Intra-Fallopian Transfer and was developed by Asch in 1984.
Last week, Asch announced to the Society of Gynecological Investigation, meeting in Toronto, that two young women suffering from premature menopause became pregnant through the GIFT technique. These were the world’s first pregnancies in prematurely menopausal women with the GIFT technique and the first such cases of any kind in the nation to become pregnant with the procedure, he said.
Asch, 38, will base the fertility clinic, to be known as the UCI-AMI Center for Reproductive Health, at AMI’s Medical Center of Garden Grove until the $80-million Irvine Medical Center is completed in early 1988. He will bring his associate, Dr. Jose Balmaceda; laboratory personnel, an embryologist and about 50 rhesus monkeys for research.
He will also be a professor in residence at UCI’s College of Medicine and will take on teaching responsibilities, in addition to his clinical and research work.
Asch said at a press conference that he had received several other offers but was attracted by UCI’s department of obstetrics and gynecology.
‘Great Pride’
Being associated with UCI “will give us great pride,” Asch said. The university’s obstetrics and gynecology department is “recognized widely. . . . We know we can work together very well,” while the association will still give him freedom to pursue his clinical and research work, he said.
Further, he said, he was influenced by the ability of AMI--one of the nation’s largest hospital chains--to channel a large number of cases to his center, which is necessary for effective research.
“We hope to see 300 to 400 cases a year,” Asch said.
Dr. Sergio Stone, chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at UCI’s department of obstetrics and gynecology, is one of the few doctors performing the GIFT technique. He said he believes that Asch was also attracted to UCI because “we have the ability for him to start tomorrow.” Asch will not have to spend months setting up a laboratory because one is already in place, and the university medical center has one of the largest sperm banks in the nation, he said.
GIFT differs from in vitro fertilization in that fertilization takes place in the body, instead of in a laboratory dish.
With in vitro fertilization, eggs are surgically removed from the woman, mixed with the sperm in a laboratory dish, and three days later the fertilized eggs are implanted in the womb.
Using the GIFT technique, the woman’s eggs are combined with the man’s sperm and injected by catheter into a Fallopian tube, Asch said. If the technique is successful, the resulting pregnancy continues as normal--the cells divide and multiply and the embryo migrates into the uterus, he said.
“We’re trying to mimic what nature does in a regular cycle . . . the way all of us were conceived by our parents,” Asch said.
The GIFT procedure has produced 47 or 48 babies at San Antonio, about 40% of whom have been twins, he said. Worldwide, the procedure has been used in about 700 cases.
He said about 80% of the candidates for in vitro fertilization have unobstructed Fallopian tubes and possibly could be treated with the GIFT procedure. However, the two techniques are “complementary” and are not at odds with each other, he said.
Couples who are suitable GIFT candidates include those with unexplained infertility, which constitutes about 35% of infertile couples, Asch said. The technique also would be appropriate if the man had a low sperm count or the woman had a cervical abnormality or endometriosis. Other candidates would be women who produce antibodies to sperm or who have follicles in their ovaries that fail to rupture and release the egg, he said.
In addition to offering the GIFT procedure, the Center for Reproductive Health will also provide in vitro fertilization and treatments for menopause, premenstrual tension syndrome, endometriosis, dysmennorhea and osteoporosis prevention.
The reproductive health clinic will be part of “a leading center for women and children’s health,” said Dr. Marvin Goldberg, senior vice presdient and president of AMI’s western division. Irvine Medical Center will be a three-level, 177-bed medical facility.
