Fertilisation and pregnancy outcome after ICSI in globozoospermic patients without assisted oocyte activation.

The successful outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) with globozoospermic sperm and non-activated oocytes is reported. Three couples underwent ICSI treatment and two of the patients were siblings. Forty-four non-activated oocytes were injected, 26 oocytes fertilised normally and 17 good quality embryos were obtained. Six embryo transfers were carried out, three with fresh embryos and three with frozen-thawed embryos. Three pregnancies resulted from the fresh embryo transfers and additionally two pregnancies were obtained after the transfer of frozen-thawed embryos. Two healthy babies were born. One twin pregnancy is ongoing. Our case reports demonstrate that in some ICSI attempts undertaken with globozoospermic sperm cells from two of our patients, high fertilisation rates, pregnancies and live births can be achieved, without artificially activated oocytes. Our data also suggest that in some cases, round-headed spermatozoa lack the capacity to activate the oocyte. Therefore, it cannot be excluded that artificial oocyte activation could be of help in globozoospermic patients with complete fertilisation failure.

[Uterine Doppler study for pre-implantation prognosis of the embryo]. / Doppler utérin dans le pronostic pré-implantatoire de l'embryon.

To assess if a simple US criteria was present allowing pre- and post-implantation evaluation of the quality of the embryo. Measurement of the pulsatility index (PI) of the uterine arteries in association with evaluation of the type of curves was useful for follow-up. PI correlates with the number of follicules, the number of cells at Day 2, and the likelihood of pregnancy whereas the type of curve directly correlates with the appearance of the oocytes and embryo before the transfer. These results should be confirmed by larger studies but they could lead to early detection and a treatment of these abnormalities of vascularization.