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Prospective randomized comparison of two embryo culture systems: P1 medium by Irvine Scientific and the Cook IVF
Dalit Ben-Yosef1, Ami Amit, Foad Azem
1The IVF Unit, Lis Maternity Hospital, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel. dalitb@tasmc.health.gov.il
Purpose:
To compare the efficacy of two commercially available in vitro fertilization (IVF) and embryo culture media systems: the glucose-free P1 Medium supplemented with 20% synthetic serum substitute (SSS) (Irvine Scientific), and the Cook IVF Medium (Cook, Australia).
Methods:
A prospective randomized study. Medical center-based IVF Unit affiliated to the Faculty of Medicine of Tel Aviv University. IVF patients were randomly assigned to either P1 Medium supplemented with 20% SSS (182 patients, 196 cycles) or Cook Medium (167 patients, 179 cycles).
Results:
Fertilization rates were similar with both media (52.3 +/- 26.1 and 53.8 +/- 27.6, respectively). Likewise, no difference was found in morphological characteristics and grading of cultured embryos. However, a significantly higher proportion of the embryos incubated in the P1 Medium reached the four-cell stage on day 2 or the 6-cell stage on day 3 postfertilization, compared to those incubated in Cook Medium (54.3% vs. 41.9%, p < 0.0001). Clinical pregnancy and delivery rates were improved when oocytes and embryos were cultured in P1 Medium. Finally, Implantation rate was significantly higher in the P1 Medium Group (9.9% vs. 6%, respectively).
Conclusions:
Our results suggest that the P1 Medium may be associated with a higher embryo cleavage rate and improved implantation rates compared to the Cook IVF Medium.
