Predictive value of the number of frozen blastocysts in live birth rates of the transferred fresh embryos

Development speed of sibling embryo positively reflects live birth rate after fresh day 3 embryo transfer

The ability of sibling embryos to form blastocysts may reflect the developmental potential of the embryos that were transferred into the uterus. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether the development speed of sibling embryos positively reflects the live birth rate following fresh embryo transfer. We examined 1262 cycles of women who underwent day 3 (D3) cleavage embryo transfer in the Peking Union Medical College Hospital in 2015-2020, who were divided into three groups (D5, D5 + D6, and D6) according to blastocyst formation. The live birth rate in patients with blastocysts that formed on D6 was significantly lower than the other two groups (36.1%, 45.6% and 44.7%, P < 0.05). For women with blastocysts that formed on D6, the live birth rate was higher in those with more good quality blastocysts than poor-quality blastocysts (42.4 vs 32.3%, P < 0.05). Multiple regression analysis showed that the blastocyst development speed of sibling embryos was an independent factor affecting live birth after fresh embryo transfer (P < 0.05). We concluded that the blastocyst development speed of sibling embryos may reflect live birth rate following the transfer of D3 cleavage embryos.

Assuring quality in assisted reproduction laboratories: assessing the performance of ART Compass - a digital art staff management platform

PURPOSE

Staff management is the most cited ART/IVF laboratory inspection deficiency. Small ART/IVF clinics may be challenged to perform these activities by low staff volume; similarly, large ART/IVF networks may be challenged by high staff volume and large datasets. Here, we sought to investigate the performance of an automated, digital platform solution to manage this necessary task.

METHODS

The ART Compass (ARTC) digital staff management platform was used to assess the clinical decision-making of ART laboratory staff. The survey modules presented standardized instructions to technologists and measured inter- and intra-technologist variability for subjective "clinical decision-making" type questions. Internal and external comparisons were achieved by providing technologists two answers: (1) a comparison to their own lab director and (2) to the most popular response collectively provided by all lab director level accounts. The platform is hosted on HIPAA compliant Amazon web servers, accessible via web browser and mobile applications for iOS (Apple) and Android mobile devices.

RESULTS

Here, we investigated the performance of a digital staff management platform for single embryologist IVF practices and for three IVF lab networks (sites A, B, C) from 2020 to 2022. Embryology dish preparation survey results show variance among respondents in the following: PPE use, media volume, timing of oil overlay, and timing of moving prepared dishes to incubators. Surveying the perceived Gardner score and terms in use for early blastocysts reveals a lack of standardization of terminology and fair to poor agreement. We observed moderate inter-technologist agreement for ICM and TE grade (0.47 and 0.52, respectively). Lastly, the clinical decision of choice to freeze or discard an embryo revealed that agreement to freeze was highest for the top-quality embryos, and that some embryos can be highly contested, evenly split between choice to freeze or discard.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that a digital platform is a novel and effective tool to automate, routinely monitor, and assure quality for staff-related parameters in ART and IVF laboratories. Use of a digital platform can increase regulatory compliance and provide actionable insight for quality assurance in both single embryologist practices and for large networks. Furthermore, clinical decision-making can be augmented with artificial intelligence integration.

On the reproductive capabilities of aneuploid human preimplantation embryos

In IVF cycles, the application of aneuploidy testing at the blastocyst stage is quickly growing, and the latest reports estimate almost half of cycles in the US undergo preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies (PGT-A). Following PGT-A cycles, understanding the predictive value of an aneuploidy result is paramount for making informed decisions about the embryo's fate and utilization. Compelling evidence from non-selection trials strongly supports that embryos diagnosed with a uniform whole-chromosome aneuploidy very rarely result in the live birth of a healthy baby, while their transfer exposes women to significant risks of miscarriage and chromosomally abnormal pregnancy. On the other hand, embryos displaying low range mosaicism for whole chromosomes have shown reproductive capabilities somewhat equivalent to uniformly euploid embryos, and they have comparable clinical outcomes and gestational risks. Therefore, given their clearly distinct biological origin and clinical consequences, careful differentiation between uniform and mosaic aneuploidy is critical in both the clinical setting when counseling individuals and in the research setting when presenting aneuploidy studies in human embryology. Here, we focus on the evidence gathered so far on PGT-A diagnostic predictive values and reproductive outcomes observed across the broad spectrum of whole-chromosome aneuploidies detected at the blastocyst stage to obtain evidence-based conclusions on the clinical management of aneuploid embryos in the quickly growing PGT-A clinical setting.