People would no longer have to visit other states to get their karyotype test conducted.

AIIMS-Patna started the facility from Saturday. patients would not be charged for the test. Karyotyping is important in finding the genetic status of a patient to help diagnose various kinds of disorders, including infertility.

The facility is available at AIIMS-Delhi, Tata Medical Centre, Calcutta, and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, and a few other hospitals.

The pathology and lab medicine department of the hospital carried out the test on a male patient suffering from infertility problem. All India Institute of Medical Sciences-Patna is the first among government health facilities in Bihar to carry out this test.

Last year, the biotechnology department of the Union government gave around Rs 50 lakh to the health hub to conduct study on male infertility.

Among the government health facilities, karyotyping test facility is only available at AIIMS-Patnabecause of the Centre-sponsored project.

Ajit Saxena, head of department, pathology and lab medicine, AIIMS-Patna, said: "The first patient is a resident of the city. The 40-year-old man had consulted many hospitals here before coming to us. We have started the procedure and the process would be completed within a week."

"The expert makes a karyotype (organised profile of a person's chromosomes) and then analyses it after which the test results are known. Bihar lacks experts who can do a karyotype test. This is the reason residents move to other cities for getting their test done. Among government health facilities, apart from AIIMS-Patna, the test is available only at AIIMS-New Delhi," added Saxena.

He said there is cent per cent chance of knowing the reason of male infertility by this test if it is owing to some genetic disorder.

"There could be many reasons of male infertility. It could be owing to stress, lifestyle problem (unhealthy food habits, excessive alcohol, tobacco and others) or because of some genetic disorder. At present, we are focusing mainly on male infertility cases because we have been provided funds by the Union government to ascertain the male infertility reasons. However, if we get any female infertility-related case, we would also take it up," Saxena said, adding: "AIIMS-Patna would also try to create a database of male infertility patients to find out data on actual number of people suffering from it."

Saxena said AIIMS-Patna bought a karyotype machine last year with its own funds. The machine costs around Rs 20 lakh.

The health hub has already started receiving requests from other hospital for getting the karyotyping test done of their patients. Saxena said doctors of the paediatrics department of Patna Medical College and Hospital had asked help from them to conduct the test. "The paediatrics doctors asked us to conduct karyotyping test on some patients. Recently, cases such as a child with two faces or an infant with a tail have been referred to us for the test. Both are cases of congenital deformities," added Saxena.