A Comparison of Pregnancy Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Donor Egg Single Embryo Transfers With and Without Preimplantation Genetic Testing.

Two of the many milestone developments in the field of assisted reproduction have been oocyte donation and preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A). Because it has been demonstrated that even young women produce a meaningful proportion of aneuploid embryos, screening out such abnormalities could potentially increase the efficacy of donor egg (DE) cycles. In this retrospective cohort study, we investigated the effect of PGT-A on DE cycle outcomes, including implantation rate (IR), spontaneous abortion rate (SABR), and ongoing pregnancy/live birth rate. We used fresh and frozen donor cycles not using PGT-A as comparison groups; all cases involved single embryo transfer. Data analysis revealed that PGT-A did not improve pregnancy outcome metrics in DE cycles, although there was a trend toward decreasing the SABR. There was a significant increase in IR with fresh cycles outperforming all frozen cycles. Overall, these results suggest that the benefits of performing PGT-A on embryos derived from young DEs may be limited and that there is an effect of the freezing process on pregnancy outcomes. These findings may provide useful insights into the science and practice of PGT-A across all of its applications.

Maternal HIV infection associated with reduced transplacental transfer of measles antibodies and increased susceptibility to disease.

BACKGROUND: Transplacental transfer of measles antibodies from mother to fetus is important in protecting against measles during early infancy. Changes in population immunity against measles in adults, including waning of immunity among HIV-infected pregnant women, could affect passive immunity acquired in utero by newborns. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effect of maternal HIV infection on transplacental transfer of measles antibody in mother-newborn dyads in a setting of high maternal HIV prevalence. STUDY DESIGN: Serum at birth was obtained from 303 mother-newborn dyads, including 196 HIV-infected and 107 HIV-uninfected women, and tested for measles IgG antibodies by ELISA. Seronegativity was defined as antibody levels <150mIU/ml and seroprotective titers as ≥330mIU/ml. RESULTS: HIV-infected and -uninfected women had similar measles antibody titers, however, cord-blood titers were lower among HIV-exposed (788.06mIU/ml) compared to HIV- unexposed newborns (1306.6mIU/ml; p≤0.001), due to lower transplacental antibody transfer ratio in HIV-exposed (0.63) than in HIV-unexposed newborns (0.97; p≤0.001). Maternal age <25years of age was associated with lower antibody titers and lower percentage with seroprotective titer, as well as less likelihood of their newborns having seroprotective titers (70.2% vs. 86.5%; p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Lower levels of measles antibody in HIV-exposed newborns and in younger women <25years old, increases the susceptibility of their newborns to developing measles. This suggest a need to re-evaluate measles immunization of women of child bearing age and the timing of measles vaccination among infants in settings with a high prevalence of maternal HIV-infection.

Autologous endometrial coculture biopsy: is timing everything?

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether endometrial biopsy timing affects implantation rates and pregnancy outcomes in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) with autologous endometrial coculture (AECC). DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SETTING: Academic medical center. PATIENT(S): All patients with a history of at least one failed IVF cycle who underwent an IVF-AECC cycle at our center from May 2004 to November 2013 were included. INTERVENTION(S): Patients underwent luteal-phase endometrial biopsy in preparation for IVF. Biopsy samples were used for IVF in either the subsequent menstrual cycle or a future cycle. Embryos were cultured in AECC media and transferred on day 3. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): A total of 2,533 cycles of 1,719 patients who underwent an IVF-AECC cycle were identified. Cycles were stratified by endometrial biopsy timing. Clinical outcomes, including implantation, pregnancy, and live birth rates, were analyzed and compared between the two groups. RESULT(S): A total of 1,416 coculture biopsies were performed in the menstrual cycle before IVF and 1,117 were performed more than one cycle before IVF. The two groups were similar in age, body mass index, number of mature oocytes retrieved, and best embryo grade. There were no significant differences in implantation, clinical pregnancy, or live birth rates, with adjusted relative risks of 1.02 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.92-1.13), 1.02 (95% CI 0.91-1.14), and 0.99 (95% CI 0.86-1.16), respectively. CONCLUSION(S): Coculture biopsy in the cycle preceding IVF does not increase implantation, clinical pregnancy, or live birth rates compared with biopsies performed more than one cycle before IVF. Previously demonstrated improvements in embryo quality and pregnancy outcomes in patients undergoing IVF with AECC are probably not attributable to biopsy-induced endometrial injury.