Keeping Cryopreserved Specimen Safe: Thermographic Imaging

Cryogenic storage of reproductive material has, to a large extent, remained unchanged for many years. Vacuum jacketed dewars used are very well constructed and reliable; however, they are not infallible so serious events can, and have occurred (Tomlinson and Morroll, Hum Fertil 11:33, 2008) including the loss of cryogenically stored reproductive material (Alikani, Reprod Biomed Online 37:1–3, 2018). The loss of an embryo can have a profound effect on the patient and in addition carries a considerable financial liability. Recent awards granted by courts in the USA have put a dollar value on an embryo of $1.8 M (Iovino, 2022). This extrapolates to a typical financial liability of reproductive material in the region of ~$500 M for the contents of a commonly used dewar, such as the MVE 47/11, if each patient has an average of two embryos frozen. Traditional methods on monitoring for failure rely on internal conditions changing, these can be slow and potentially unreliable. New technology now utilizes infrared thermography to monitor the exterior temperatures of the dewars and is a faster and more informative method of monitoring that can easily be overlaid over any other method of monitoring without interfering. Thermographic monitoring has the added advantages of being much more sensitive than any other methods of monitoring; it provides the ability to monitor multiple dewars at the same time and thus provide a visual comparison of external dewar temperatures relative to other dewars. Thermographic monitoring provides a novel method for daily validation of dewar integrity that can be seen by users both locally at the cryostorage facility and remotely. Remote video through mobile devices can give staff additional reassurance when they are away from the cryostorage facility or if an alert is sent and can also provide a method for remotely monitoring by a central cryostorage monitoring center.