The appropriate management for male partners of couples with recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) or recurrent implantation failure during in vitro fertilization (IVF) remains unclear. In particular, men with normal semen parameters are often ignored because the “bulk semen parameters” appear normal [1]. Despite normal semen parameters, male partners in couples with RPL or recurrent implantation fail...

In 1978, a new era has started in the treatment of infertility by the birth of the first baby from a pregnancy achieved by in-vitro fertilization. Following this, healthy pregnancies have been achieved by assisted reproductive techniques such as in-vitro fertilization by an important percentage of the childless couples. Despite all developments in assisted reproductive techniques, pregnancy rat...

BACKGROUND Despite ongoing progresses of IVF techniques, biomarkers predicting their outcome prior to IVF initiation are lacking. We investigated whether serum levels of the stress-inducible soluble major histocompatibility complex Class I chain-related molecule, MICA, (sMIC), a regulator of cellular immunity, can be predictive of implantation or pregnancy failure after IVF. METHODS sMIC seru...

Recent studies report surprisingly low rates of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) placement for primary prevention against sudden cardiac death among patients with heart failure and left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Reasons for the low rates of utilization are not well understood. The authors examined ICD implantation rates at a university-based tertiary care center and used mul...

Right ventricular dysfunction and significant tricuspid regurgitation are frequently seen in end stage heart failure patients undergoing Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) implantation. Clinical impact of tricuspid valve repair at the time of LVAD implantation in patients with pre-existing significant tricuspid regurgitation has been a topic of debate for several years. Some groups have advo...

The success rate of reproductive treatment methods depends on many different factors. The most important and discussed ones in the literature are maternal age, the causes of infertility, the ovarian response to stimulation, the influence of the male factor and sperm quality, embryo quality and the various uterine pathologies. Some couples fail repeatedly after transferring good quality embryos ...

Even after incomplete myocardial recovery during mechanical circulatory support, long-term survival rates after ventricular assist device (VAD) explantation can be better than those expected after heart transplantation even for patients with chronic non-ischemic cardiomyopathy as the underlying cause for VAD implantation. The elective therapeutic use of ventricular assist devices for heart fail...

Introduction: Patients will typically undergo awake surgery for permanent implantation of SCS in an attempt to optimize electrode placement using patient feedback about the distribution of stimulation-induced paresthesia. The present study compared efficacy of first-time electrode placement under awake conditions with that of neurophysiologicallyguided placement under general anesthesia. Method...

The aim is to explore the effect of acupuncture on Th1, Th2 cytokines in rats of implantation failure. Early pregnant rats were randomized into normal group (N), implantation failure group (M), acupuncture group (A), progestin group (H). The model was established with mifepristone. Samples of serum, endometrium were collected on Day 5, 6 and 8 of pregnancy. Compared with group M, the number of ...

BACKGROUND Implantation failure of blastocyst is one of the main reasons of failure to become pregnancy following use of Assisted Reproductive Techniques. HLA-G, one of the non-classic HLA subtypes, seems to have a vital role in neutralizing of mother immune system. According to importance of ins/del polymorphism of HLA-G in regulation of HLA-G expression, it seems that this polymorphism has an...