'Risk factors overlooked' in IVF death

(ANSA) - Rome, June 17 - Health ministry inspectors said Wednesday the death of a woman after IVF was due to staff "underestimating significant risk factors". These were "obesity, hypertension, diabetes and heart disease," the inspectors said. Arianna Acrivoulis, 38, died June 10 at a hospital in the southern town of Conversano after an assisted fertility treatment involving a fine-needle follicle aspiration.
    Once aspired, the eggs in the follicles are fertilized in vitro (IVF), then implanted back into the woman's body in hopes at least one will take hold and become a viable fetus.
    Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin sent a task force to the hospital to look into Acrivoulis' untimely death the following day. Carabinieri police seized the patient's clinical file and Bari prosecutors placed two doctors under investigation, sources said at the time.