Objective:
To identify the effect of apoptotic sperm elimination with MACS in patients
that require IVF.
Methods:
An experimental, cross-sectional, descriptive, prospective and non-blinded
study of diagnostic tests performed in patients who required IVF and ICSI
from July 2011 to July 2012. Ninety-two couples participated according to
the treatment administered to the semen sample; in the control group: the
samples were subjected only to density gradients before ICSI, in the study
group: the same procedure was performed plus the addition of the MACS
technique. Comparing the groups, we assessed the fertilization, division,
viable embryos and clinical pregnancy rates in all cases.
Results:
We found significant differences when using MACS technique in sperm
parameters. We found no differences between the total samples of the control
and study groups. When separating the own and donated eggs in each group, we
found an improvement in the fertilization rates
(
p
<0.001) of the own eggs. In both groups, the handling
of donated eggs lead to a significant improvement in the immunological
pregnancy test (IPT) and fetal heart rate (FHR) results. Only in the donated
eggs group, where MACS was applied, could we see that all cases with
positive IPT had a fetal heart rate, which shows a significant difference
(
p
<0.002) when compared with the control group,
where the percentage decreased abruptly.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the use of annexins (MACS) in
eliminating apoptotic sperm, and when the obtained sperm is applied to
good-quality eggs.