Objective. To test if serum hCG levels the morning after the ovulatory hCG injection correlate with (1) retrieval efficiency, (2) oocyte maturity, (3) embryo quality, (4) pregnancy, and/or (5) time to implantation in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Design. Retrospective cohort analysis. Setting. University-based IVF clinic. Patient(...

A major side-effect of controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) in patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is the risk of ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS). In-vitro maturation (IVM) of immature oocytes represents a potential alternative for the fertility treatment of these patients. Two patients at high risk of OHSS were primed with 10,000 IU HCG 36 h before oocyte retrieval. After...

BACKGROUND To examine whether ovarian puncture for immature oocyte retrieval and in-vitro maturation (IVM) has an effect on the endocrine profile of patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). METHODS Twenty-two consecutive patients with PCOS undergoing IVM treatment were included. Serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), total testosterone (TT) and luteini...

Some researchers have suggested that fetuses eventually might be used as a source for oocytes in oocyte donation programs (1, 2). One variant is to remove oocytes from the ovaries of aborted fetuses, mature them in vitro, and use them as donor oocytes for couples who need eggs as part of their IVF effort. A second variant is to remove ovaries from aborted fetuses and transplant them in women wh...

Background The use of a medical simulator should enhance the goals of minimally invasive surgery: patient safety, cosmesis, shortening the length of hospital admissions, and reducing cost. Using an innovative approach to the handling of ultrasound images in virtual reality simulation, this article describes a process that employs a hybrid model of deformable models that can be applied in the te...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the association of individual follicular fluid (FF) leptin and adiponectin levels with the quality of the corresponding oocyte and embryo. METHODS We prospectively enrolled 67 women who underwent controlled ovarian hyperstimulation with 89 FF samples. FF and the corresponding oocyte was obtained from a single dominant preovulatory follicle at the time of oocyte retrie...

background: pregnancy rate with ivf cycle is almost 22%. many investigations perform to increase this rate in ivf. various factors affect the result of ivf cycles. one of these factors could be uterine contractions that expel transferred embryo. ritodrine is a beta mimetic agent that can block and decrease uterine contractions. objective: the objective of this study was to determine ritodrine e...

BACKGROUND Gene expression of cumulus cells (CC) could predict oocyte developmental quality. Knowledge of the genes involved in determining oocyte quality is scanty. The aim was to correlate clinical and biological characteristics during ovarian stimulation with the expression of 10 selected genes in CC. METHODS Sixty-three ICSI patients were stimulated with GnRH-agonist plus highly purified ...

CONTEXT Our center's quality improvement optimization process on many occasions anecdotally suggested that oocyte assessments might enhance embryo assessment in predicting pregnancy chances with in vitro fertilization (IVF). OBJECTIVE To prospectively compare a morphologic oocyte grading system to standard day-3 morphologic embryo assessment. DESIGN, SETTING, PATIENTS We prospectively inves...