Serum progesterone levels of less than 1.5 ng/mL are a good predictor of ectopic pregnancy resolution regardless of treatment, and because its return to normal values occurs more rapidly than that of hCG levels, serum progesterone may be a better marker for predicting successful treatment. Although laparoscopic salpingostomy leads to faster resolution of hormonal markers of ectopic gestation, methotrexate is equally successful for treating small unruptured ectopic pregnancies. Initial hCG levels may be a marker for women requiring additional doses of methotrexate.
Objective: To compare two different blastocyst biopsy protocols. Design: Retrospective single-center cohort study. Settings: Private in vitro fertilization center. Patient(s): The study included 1,670 frozen-thawed embryo transfers (FETs) with preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A). Intervention: None. Main Outcome Measure(s): Survival rate (SR) after thawing, clinical pregnancy rate (CPR), ongoing implantation rate (IR), and live birth rate (LBR). Result(s): Eight hundred thirty-five FETs with PGT-A cycles including only embryos biopsied in the sequential blastocyst hatching and biopsy protocol paired with the ablation of one-fourth of the zona pellucida (ZP) were matched with 835 FETs with PGT-A cycles including only embryos biopsied in the day 3 prehatching protocol by female age (AE1 year), number of embryos transferred, use of gestational carrier or egg donor, and day of blastocyst transfer. Only FETs with euploid blastocysts graded no lower than 4BB were included, and cycles with fewer than five oocytes were excluded. SR after thawing, CPR, ongoing IR, and LBR were significantly higher in the FET cycles with the embryos biopsied in the sequential hatching and biopsy protocol. Four cases of monozygotic twin pregnancies were reported with the day 3 prehatching protocol and none with the sequential hatching and biopsy protocol.
Conclusion(s):Our results show, for the first time, that using different blastocyst biopsy protocols can affect clinical outcomes. Because the study was retrospective, our findings should be validated in a prospective trial. (Fertil Steril Ò 2020;113:981-89. Ó2019 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.) El resumen está disponible en Español al final del artículo.
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