Laser technology in the ART laboratory: a narrative review.

To improve success rates, assisted reproductive technology (ART) procedures continually undergo optimization and enhancement such that the best quality gametes and embryos can be identified and manipulated, thus improving clinical outcomes. Laser technology is now being applied across ART to reduce procedure times and increase the consistency and reproducibility of traditional ART techniques such as assisted hatching, embryo biopsy, intracytoplasmic sperm injection cryopreservation and sperm immobilization/selection. This review examines the current status of cutting-edge laser-assisted reproductive technologies, investigates experimental techniques that are increasingly being applied clinically. It highlights the benefits of lasers as a powerful technology at the forefront of both diagnostic and therapeutic treatments for general subfertility and male-factor infertility. However, it is important to note that although lasers are becoming increasingly commonplace in ART units, there is comparatively little information in the existing literature pertaining to the potential negative effects that laser application might have on the developing human embryo, thus creating the need for further investigative research.

Cytogenetic analysis of human blastocysts with the use of FISH, CGH and aCGH: scientific data and technical evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have suggested that biopsy of several trophectoderm (TE) cells from blastocysts followed by comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) analysis might represent an optimal strategy for aneuploidy detection, but few data on accuracy are available. The main question concerns the rate of mosaicism at the blastocyst stage, and to what extent this might cause misdiagnoses. We assessed blastocyst aneuploidy and mosaicism rates and evaluated the accuracy and efficiency of CGH and microarray-CGH (aCGH) for TE analysis. METHODS: A total of 52 blastocysts, from 20 couples, were biopsied and their chromosomes examined by CGH. The remaining cells were spread and tested by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). Of the 52 blastocysts, 20 underwent a second TE biopsy and were tested using aCGH. RESULTS: CGH and aCGH produced results for 98% of TE samples. 42.3% of blastocysts were uniformly euploid, 30% were uniformly aneuploid and 32.4% were mosaic. Of the mosaic embryos, 15.4% were found to be composed of a mixture of different aneuploid cell lines, while 17% contained both normal and aneuploid cells. Mosaic diploid-aneuploid blastocysts with >30% normal cells accounted for <6% of analysed embryos. CONCLUSIONS: Comprehensive chromosome screening and follow-up assessment of large numbers of cells provided a unique insight into the cytogenetics of human blastocysts. Meiotic and post-zygotic errors leading to mosaicism were common. However, most mosaic blastocysts contained no normal cells. Hence, CGH or aCGH TE analysis is an accurate aneuploidy detection tool and may assist in identifying viable euploid embryos with higher implantation potential.

Comparison of NICE and ESC proposed strategies on new onset chest pain and the contemporary clinical utility of pretest probability risk score.

AIMS: Patients with de novo chest pain are usually investigated non-invasively. The new UK-National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines recommend CT coronary angiography (CTCA) for all patients, while European Society of Cardiology (ESC) recommends functional tests. We sought to compare the clinical utility and perform a cost analysis of these recommendations in two UK centres with different primary investigative strategies. METHODSRESULTS: We compared two groups of patients, group A (n=667) and group B (n=654), with new onset chest pain in two neighbouring National Health Service hospitals, each primarily following either ESC (group A) or NICE (group B) guidance. We assessed the clinical utility of each strategy, including progression to invasive coronary angiography (ICA) and revascularisation. We present a retrospective cost analysis in the context of UK tariff for stress echo (£176), CTCA (£220) and ICA (£1001). Finally, we sought to identify predictors of revascularisation in the whole population.Baseline characteristics in both groups were similar. The progression to ICA was comparable (9.9% vs 12.0%, p=0.377), with similar requirement for revascularisation (4.0% vs 5.0%.; p=0.532). The average cost of investigations per investigated patient was lower in group A (£279.66 vs £325.77), saving £46.11 per patient. The ESC recommended risk score (RS) was found to be the only predictor of revascularisation (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.06; p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Both NICE and ESC-proposed strategies led to similar rates of ICA and need for revascularisation in discrete, but similar groups of patients. The SE-first approach had a lower overall cost by £46.11 per patient, and the ESC RS was the only variable correlated to revascularisation.