A minimally invasive methodology based on morphometric parameters for day 2 embryo quality assessment

Autores de IIS La Fe

• Inmaculada Molina Botella

  Autor

• Jose F. Pertusa Grau

  Autor

• Juan Vicente Martinez Sanchis

  Autor

• Antonio Pellicer Martínez

  Autor

Participantes ajenos a IIS La Fe

• Lázaro-Ibáñez E
• Debón A

Grupos

• Medicina Reproductiva

  

  Investigador Principal

  José Morales Roselló

Abstract

The risk of multiple pregnancy to maternal-fetal health can be minimized by reducing the number of embryos transferred. New tools for selecting embryos with the highest implantation potential should be developed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of morphological and morphometric variables to predict implantation by analysing images of embryos. This was a retrospective study of 135 embryo photographs from 112 IVF-ICSI cycles carried out between January and March 2011. The embryos were photographed immediately before transfer using Cronus 3 software. Their images were analysed using the public program ImageJ. Significant effects (P < 0.05), and higher discriminant power to predict implantation were observed for the morphometric embryo variables compared with morphological ones. The features for successfully implanted embryos were as follows: four cells on day 2 of development; all blastomeres with circular shape (roundness factor greater than 0.9), an average zona pellucida thickness of 13 mu m and an average of 17695.1 mu m(2) for the embryo area. Embryo size, which is described by its area and the average roundness factor for each cell, provides two objective variables to consider when predicting implantation. This approach should be further investigated for its potential ability to improve embryo scoring. (C) 2014 Reproductive Healthcare Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

• Image analysism embryo grading systems; Logit regression; Morphology; Morphometry; ROC curve