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Oocyte morphology correlates with embryo quality and pregnancy rate after intracytoplasmic sperm injection
D Loutradis1, P Drakakis, K Kallianidis
1Alexandra Maternity Hospital, First Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Athens University Medical School, Greece.
Objective:
To evaluate the relation of oocyte morphology with embryo quality and pregnancy rates (PRs) after intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).
Design:
Retrospective study of patients undergoing ICSI.
Setting:
University Hospital IVF Center.
Patient(S):
Sixty-eight patients who underwent ICSI and had transfer of good-quality embryos (grade 3), 60 patients with transfer of both good- and poor-quality embryos (grade 3 and grade 2), and 18 patients with transfer of poor-quality embryos (grade 2).
Intervention(S):
Comparison of the outcome of ICSI in the three groups of patients and the relation of oocyte morphology to embryo quality.
Main Outcome Measure(S):
Oocyte morphology and embryo quality (grade). Fertilization, cleavage, and pregnancy rates. Serum E2 on the day of hCG administration.
Result(S):
Oocytes with poor morphology (dark cytoplasm; many vacuoles or fragments in cytoplasm) led to poor-quality embryos and consequently to lower PRs (5.5% versus 29.4%). Serum E2 on the day of hCG administration was significantly higher in the group with good-quality embryos compared with that with poor-quality embryos (2,047 +/- 135.7 versus 1,651 +/- 164.8 pg/mL, respectively).
Conclusion(S):
Serum E2 on the day of hCG administration is a marker of embryo quality. Oocyte morphology correlates well with embryo quality and PRs after ICSI.