OBJECTIVE Laser-assisted intracytoplasmic sperm injection (LA-ICSI), also known as micro-opening or thinning of the zona pellucida (ZP) prior to ICSI, may help to reduce mechanical damage to the oocyte during the procedure. The aim of the present study was to evaluate and analyze the efficacy of our institutional LA-ICSI program, which features laser-assisted ZP thinning prior to ICSI, in compa...

BACKGROUND To determine whether matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMP-1 and TIMP-2) in human follicular fluid, have any relationships with oocyte maturation in vivo and subsequent fertilization during in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles. METHODS The follicular fluids were obtained from 150 female patients undergoing IVF/I...

BACKGROUND The availability of an efficient cryopreservation program is especially important in the case of embryos that have undergone blastomere biopsy for PGD. Unfortunately, the freezing/thawing of biopsied embryos has given disappointing results when performed at the cleavage stage. In this study, embryos diagnosed as normal after PGD were grown to the blastocyst stage, frozen and thawed f...

Starting in 1970s as experimental procedures following numerous trial-and-error processes, assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have developed extensively through the past three decades. Following the successful birth of the first IVF baby, ART rapidly developed in both research and clinical practice during 1980s. Then after during1990s, IVF clinics, different ART methods and their success ...

In this paper, a retrospective cohort study was conducted to the high ovarian responders in GnRH-antagonist protocols of IVF/ICSI cycles. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether dual triggering of final oocyte maturation with a combination of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) can improve the clinical outcome compared with traditional...

OBJECTIVE To examine the relationship of early human embryonic development parameters to day 3 reactive oxygen species (D-3 ROS) levels in culture media. DESIGN Prospective study. SETTING Tertiary care hospital. PATIENT(S) Patients were undergoing IVF (n=92; 36 with intracytoplasmic sperm injection [ICSI]). INTERVENTION(S) The D-3 ROS levels in sample and control of each embryo culture ...

The recent availability of recombinant follicle stimulating hormone (rFSH), with its high level of purity and batch-to-batch consistency has made it an attractive alternative to urinary FSH (uFSH) for ovarian stimulation. Several trials have compared the two preparations, but none had sufficient power to detect a clinically meaningful difference in pregnancy rates. The purpose of this study was...

OBJECTIVE To compare embryo quality and reproductive outcome in our IVF program according to the women's body mass index (BMI). DESIGN Retrospective study. SETTING University-affiliated infertility clinic, between January 2001 and April 2007. PATIENT(S) Women undergoing a total of 6,500 IVF-intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles. INTERVENTION(S) Six thousand five hundred IVF-ICS...

Information on the outcomes of ART treatments in Ireland is not readily available to Irish practitioners. The data for hospital affiliated clinics has been made available for many years and is included in the hospital reports. We present a 10-year analysis of the Irish ART results voluntarily reported by six out of seven IVF clinics. The data was collected from published ESHRE reports and from ...