Fertility specialists' views, behavior, and attitudes towards the use of endometrial scratching in Italy.

BACKGROUND: Endometrial scratching (ES) or injury is intentional damage to the endometrium performed to improve reproductive outcomes for infertile women desiring pregnancy. Moreover, recent systematic reviews with meta-analyses and randomized controlled trials demonstrated that ES is not effective, data on the safety are limited, and it should not be recommended in clinical practice. The aim of the current study was to assess the view and behavior towards ES among fertility specialists throughout infertility centers in Italy, and the relationship between these views and the attitudes towards the use of ES as an add-on in their commercial setting. METHODS: Online survey among infertility centers, affiliated to Italian Society of Human Reproduction (SIRU), was performed using a detailed questionnaire including 45 questions with the possibility to give "closed" multi-choice answers for 41 items and "open" answers for 4 items. Online data from the websites of the infertility centers resulting in affiliation with the specialists were also recorded and analyzed. The quality of information about ES given on infertility centers websites was assessed using a scoring matrix including 10 specific questions (scored from 0 to 2 points), and the possible scores ranged from 0 to 13 points ('excellent' if the score was 9 points or more, 'moderate' if the score was between 5 and 8, and 'poor' if it was 4 points or less). RESULTS: The response rate was of 60.6% (43 questionnaires / 71 infertility SIRU-affiliated centers). All included questionnaires were completed in their entirety. Most physicians (~ 70%) reported to offer ES to less than 10% of their patients. The procedure is mainly performed in the secretory phase (69.2%) using pipelle (61.5%), and usually in medical ambulatory (56.4%) before IVF cycles to improve implantation (71.8%) without drugs administration (e.g., pain drugs, antibiotics, anti-hemorrhagics, or others) before (76.8%) or after (64.1%) the procedure. Only a little proportion of infertility centers included in the analysis proposes formally the ES as an add-on procedure (9.3%), even if, when proposed, the full description of the indications, efficacy, safety, and costs is never addressed. However, the overall information quality of the websites was generally "poor" ranging from 3 to 8 and having a low total score (4.7 ± 1.6; mean ± standard deviation). CONCLUSIONS: In Italy, ES is a procedure still performed among fertility specialists for improving the implantation rate in IVF patients. Moreover, they have a poor attitude in proposing ES as an add-on in the commercial setting.

Ischemia-modified albumin in pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE: In normal pregnancies, a hypoxic intrauterine environment seems necessary for early trophoblast development. In this context, maternal serum levels of ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) are elevated, reflecting the oxidative stress associated with placental development. The aim of this study was to evaluate IMA and pregnancy-associated plasma protein A (PAPP-A) in mothers bearing small-for-gestational-age (SGA) fetuses compared to normal pregnancies. STUDY DESIGN: A prospective study was performed between June 2010 and June 2011. Serum total albumin, IMA and PAPP-A concentrations were determined in 81 pregnant women in three different periods: 1st trimester, 2nd trimester and postpartum. Two groups of subjects were retrospectively identified: Group (1) mothers bearing appropriate-for-gestational-age (AGA) fetuses, and Group (2) mothers bearing SGA fetuses. Serum total albumin and IMA concentrations were determined in 198 non-pregnant women as controls. RESULTS: Serum IMA concentrations increase during gestation. IMA/albumin serum levels in the 1st trimester were significantly higher in subjects of Group (2) (p<0.05), whereas values of serum PAPP-A MoM were significantly lower (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Elevated IMA serum levels together with low levels of PAPP-A were detected in the 1st trimester in mothers bearing SGA fetuses, and this may reflect early placental changes occurring before clinical manifestation of SGA.

Assessment of endometrial volume and vascularization using transvaginal 3D power Doppler angiography in women with postmenopausal bleeding.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the usefulness of 3D power Doppler angiography (3D-PDA) and endometrial thickness measurement by 2D Doppler ultrasound in the distinction of benign from malignant disease in postmenopausal women with abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) and an endometrial thickness greater than 4.5mm. METHODS: Forty-eight women with AUB and an endometrial thickness greater than 4.5mm on 2D ultrasound underwent 3D-PDA. The endometrium and a 5-mm subendometrial "shell" were evaluated at rotation angles of 9° and 30°. Endometrial volume, vascularity index, flow index, and vascularization flow index were obtained. RESULTS: The histologic findings were normal or benign for 38 women (79%) and malignant for 10 (21%). All vascular indices were significantly higher in the group with malignancies except for the vascularization flow index. There were no differences in the values obtained using the 9° or the 30° angle. Receiver-operating characteristics curves were traced for all indices. The vascularity index had the best area under the curve (0.78), 77.8% sensitivity, and 82.6% specificity. The areas under the curve were smaller for the shell than for the endometrium. CONCLUSION: 3D-PDA was not found better than 2D ultrasound at distinguishing benign from malignant disease in women with AUB and an endometrial thickness greater than 4.5mm.