Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Feb;35(2):311-319.
doi: 10.1007/s10815-017-1063-7. Epub 2017 Oct 18.

Extended culture of poor-quality supernumerary embryos improves ART outcomes

Amira Sallem  1   2 , Pietro Santulli  3   4 , Virginie Barraud-Lange  1   2 , Nathalie Le Foll  1 , Lucile Ferreux  1 , Chloé Maignien  3 , Mathilde Bourdon  3   4 , Charles Chapron  3 , Dominique de Ziegler  3 , Jean-Philippe Wolf  1   2 , Khaled Pocate-Cheriet  5   6
Affiliations

Extended culture of poor-quality supernumerary embryos improves ART outcomes

Amira Sallem et al. J Assist Reprod Genet. 2018 Feb.

Abstract

Purpose: The aims of this study were to investigate the possible benefits of extending the culture of poor-quality day-2 embryos (PQE) versus good-quality embryos (GQE) and to identify factors associated with pregnancy and live birth when transferring frozen-thawed blastocysts originating from GQE and PQE.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort follow-up study performed between November 2012 and February 2015 at the IVF Laboratory Unit of Cochin University Hospital (Paris, France) including 3108 day-2 supernumerary embryos resulting from 1237 IVF/ICSI cycles.

Results: Total blastulation rate was 67.2% from GQE and 48.7% from PQE. Percentage of good-quality blastocysts was 60.7 and 47.9% respectively including 14.7 and 7.3% top-quality blastocysts. A total of 150 blastocysts originating from GQE and 729 from PQE were frozen, and then, 37 and 164 were thawed and transferred respectively resulting in 19 (51.4%) and 61 (37.9%) clinical pregnancies with 13 (35.1%) deliveries from GQE and 32 (19.9%) from PQE (p = 0.046) without any difference in neonatal outcomes. Quality of blastocysts that resulted in live birth was similar in the two groups. Women < 35 years old and day-5 blastocyst expansion were predictive of pregnancy and live birth.

Conclusions: (i) PQE are able to reach the blastocyst stage, to implant, and to give healthy babies and (ii) women age and day of blastocyst expansion are predictive of pregnancy and live birth.

Keywords: Blastocyst quality; Embryo morphology; Live birth; Neonatal outcomes; Supernumerary embryos.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Blastocyst quality classes
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alpha Scientists in Reproductive Medicine and ESHRE Special Interest Group of Embryology The Istanbul consensus workshop on embryo assessment: proceedings of an expert meeting. Hum Reprod Oxf Engl. 2011;26:1270–1283. doi: 10.1093/humrep/der037. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kaartinen N, Das P, Kananen K, Huhtala H, Tinkanen H. Can repeated IVF-ICSI-cycles be avoided by using blastocysts developing from poor-quality cleavage stage embryos? Reprod BioMed Online. 2015;30:241–247. doi: 10.1016/j.rbmo.2014.11.016. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Shaw-Jackson C, Bertrand E, Becker B, Colin J, Beaudoin-Chabot C, Rozenberg S, et al. Vitrification of blastocysts derived from fair to poor quality cleavage stage embryos can produce high pregnancy rates after warming. J Assist Reprod Genet. 2013;30:1035–1042. doi: 10.1007/s10815-013-0037-7. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Guerif F, Lemseffer M, Leger J, Bidault R, Cadoret V, Chavez C, et al. Does early morphology provide additional selection power to blastocyst selection for transfer? Reprod BioMed Online. 2010;21:510–519. doi: 10.1016/j.rbmo.2010.06.043. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Santulli P, Gayet V, Fauque P, Chopin N, Dulioust E, Wolf JP, et al. HIV-positive patients undertaking ART have longer infertility histories than age-matched control subjects. Fertil Steril. 2011;95:507–512. doi: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2010.09.018. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources