Influence of ambient air pollution on successful pregnancy with frozen embryo transfer: A machine learning prediction...

Numerous air pollutants have been reported to influence the outcomes of in vitro fertilization (IVF). However, whether air pollution affects implantation in frozen embryo transfer (FET) process is under debate. We aimed to find the association between ambient air pollution and implantation potential of FET and test the value of adding air pollution data to a random forest model (RFM) predicting intrauterine pregnancy. Using a retrospective study of a 4-year single-center design，we analyzed 3698 cycles of women living in Shanghai who underwent FET between 2015 and 2018. To estimate patients' individual exposure to air pollution, we computed averages of daily concentrations of six air pollutants including PM_2.5, PM₁₀, SO₂, CO, NO₂, and O₃ measured at 9 monitoring stations in Shanghai for the exposure period (one month before FET). Moreover, A predictive model of 15 variables was established using RFM. Air pollutants levels of patients with or without intrauterine pregnancy were compared. Our results indicated that for exposure periods before FET, NO₂ were negatively associated with intrauterine pregnancy (OR: 0.906, CI: 0.816-0.989). AUROC increased from 0.712 to 0.771 as air pollutants features were added. Overall, our findings demonstrate that exposure to NO₂ before transfer has an adverse effect on clinical pregnancy. The performance to predict intrauterine pregnancy will improve with the use of air pollution data in RFM.