Journal of Southern Medical University 2015;35(4):481-485

Comparison of clinical outcomes of blastocysts derived from non-top quality embryos and cleavage-stage high-quality embryos in frozen-thawed embryo transfer cycles.

Li-Juan XU 1 2 ; Xin CHEN ; Xiao-Long TIAN ; Yu-Dong LIU ; Nan WANG ; De-Sheng YE ; Ping-Ping GUO ; Shi-Ling CHEN

Affiliations

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Country

China

Language

Chinese

Abstract

OBJECTIVETo explore the developmental potential of embryos at different developmental days and provide evidence for blastocyst culture of non-top quality cleavage stage embryos in frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) cycles.

METHODSThe clinical data of 687 FET cycles were retrospectively analyzed. According to the embryo freezing time, the patients were divided into day 5 (D5) blastocyst group (n=87), day 6 (D6) blastocyst group (n=111) and day 3 cleavage-stage embryo (D3) group (n=489) with hormone replacement cycles or natural cycles for endometrial preparation. The clinical pregnancy rates, miscarriage rates, and implantation rates were compared between the 3 groups.

RESULTSThe clinical pregnancy rate, miscarriage rate and implantation rate per transfer were 58.6%, 9.8%, and 42.9% in D5 group, 32.4%, 19.4%, and 23.3% in D6 group, and 44.9%, 16.4%, and 26.9% in D3 group, respectively. The clinical pregnancy rate and implantation rate were significantly higher in D5 group than in the other two groups (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONThe D5 blastocysts derived from non-top quality D3 embryos after cryopreservation can have better clinical outcomes than those derived from D3 cleavage-stage embryos and D6 blastocysts, and are therefore a better option than D3 cleavage-stage embryos in FET cycles.