Endometrial microvessel density for assessing endometrial receptivity during the peri-implantation period / 南方医科大学学报

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the value of endometrial microvessel density (MVD) in assessing the endometrial receptivity during the peri-implantation period.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>A total of 104 patients undergoing in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) treatment were analyzed retrospectively. The subjects were divided into clinical pregnancy group (50 cases) and nonpregnant group (54 cases) according to the IVF-ET outcome. Endometrial tissues were collected 7 days after the natural ovulation prior to IVF-ET for measurement of the endometrial MVD using electron microscopy, which was analyzed in relation to the clinical outcome of the treatment.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The endometrial MVD was significantly higher in the clinical pregnancy group than in the nonpregnant group [(4.12∓1.84)% vs (3.46∓1.26)%, t=-2.127, P=0.036). ROC curve analysis showed that the MVD had an area under the curve slightly over 0.5 (0.598) for predicting clinical pregnancy, suggesting a poor specificity in predicting the clinical outcome of the treatment.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>In IVF-ET cycles, the endometrial MVD during the peri-implantation period is helpful for assessing the endometrial receptivity, but the specificity remains low.</p>