Early fragment removal on in vitro fertilization day 2 significantly improves the subsequent development and clinical outcomes of fragmented human embryos / 대한생식의학회지

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether fragment removal on in vitro fertilization (IVF) day 2 improved the subsequent development and pregnancy outcomes of fragmented embryos compared to similar-grade embryos without fragment removal. METHODS: This study was a retrospective analysis involving 191 IVF cycles in which all embryos had over 10% fragmentation (grade 3 or 4) on day 2 of the IVF-embryo transfer cycle from March 2015 to December 2017. IVF cycles were divided into the fragment removal group (n=87) and the no fragment removal group (n=104) as a control cohort. Before fragment removal, embryos with fragmentation on day 2 were incubated in Ca2+- and Mg2+-free biopsy medium under paraffin oil for 30 minutes. Microsurgical fragment removal was performed with later-assisted hatching and a handmade suction micropipette that had an outer diameter of 30 µm. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the characteristics of the patients between the control and the fragment removal groups. After fragment removal and subsequent in vitro culture for 24 hours, the number of blastomeres (7.1±1.7 vs. 6.9±1.6) was comparable between the transferred embryos in the two groups, but the morphological grade of the embryos in the fragment removal group (1.9±0.7) was significantly higher than that of the control group (3.1±0.5, p < 0.01). The clinical pregnancy (43.7%) and implantation rates (25.8%) in the fragment removal group were significantly higher than those in the control group (28.8% and 14.0%, respectively; p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Early fragment removal on day 2 significantly improved the subsequent development and pregnancy outcomes of fragmented embryos.

ICSI significantly improved the pregnancy rate of patients with a high sperm DNA fragmentation index / 대한생식의학회지

OBJECTIVE: Correlations between semen parameters and sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) were investigated to identify characteristics of sperm without DNA damage that could be used in selecting sperm for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Pregnancy outcomes were compared to determine whether in vitro fertilization (IVF) or ICSI is a better choice for patients who have sperm with a high-DFI. METHODS: Semen analysis was carried out in 388 patients who visited our IVF center for the first time to investigate correlations between sperm DFI and semen parameters. In addition, 1,102 IVF cycles in 867 patients were carried out in the present study; 921 cycles in the low-DFI group (DFI <30%) and 181 cycles in the high-DFI group (DFI ≥30%). Both the low- and high-DFI groups were subdivided into IVF and ICSI cycle groups. RESULTS: Sperm DFI showed significant inverse correlations with sperm motility (r=−0.435, p<0.001) and morphology (r=−0.153, p<0.05). Sperm DFI also showed significant correlations with rapid motility (r=−0.436, p<0.001), and the kinetic parameters of average-path velocity (r=−0.403) and linearity (r=−0.412). Although there was no significant difference in the pregnancy rates between IVF (48.6%) and ICSI (44.8%) in the low-DFI group, the pregnancy rate of ICSI cycles (44.8%, p<0.05) was significantly higher than IVF cycles (25.0%) in the high-DFI group. No significant difference was observed in the abortion rates between the low-DFI (52 of 921, 5.6%) and high-DFI groups (7 of 181, 3.8%). CONCLUSION: ICSI is a better choice than IVF for improving the pregnancy outcomes of patients who have sperm with a high DFI.

Psychological distress and fertility quality of life (FertiQoL) in infertile Korean women: The first validation study of Korean FertiQoL / 대한생식의학회지

OBJECTIVE: To investigate psychological distress and fertility quality of life (FertiQoL) in infertile Korean women, and to investigate whether a correlation exists between psychological distress and FertiQoL. METHODS: Participants in this study were made up of 141 infertile women and 65 fertile women. We conducted a survey on psychological distress (using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales [DASS]-42 questionnaire) and administered a FertiQoL questionnaire. The levels of stress hormones (adrenocorticotropic hormone [ACTH] and cortisol) in serum were assessed. RESULTS: The scores for depression (13.7±8.4), anxiety (10.7±6.4), and stress (18.0±8.3) among the infertile women were significantly higher than the scores for depression (9.4±7.5), anxiety (6.6±6.0), and stress (12.2±8.3, p<0.001) among the fertile women. There was no difference in the scores for depression (13.5±8.2, 13.8±8.6), anxiety (10.0±6.2, 11.5±6.6) and stress (17.7±8.4, 18.4±8.1) between younger (≤34) and older (≥35) participants. The mind-body (r =–0.495) and emotional (r =–0.590) subscales showed a higher negative correlation with stress compared with other scales of psychological distress. At the same time, the social (r =–0.537) and relational (r =–0.385) subscales showed a higher negative correlation with depression. Levels of cortisol and ACTH in infertile women were 9.1 µg/mL and 11.9 pg/mL, respectively, which are within normal ranges. CONCLUSION: The levels of psychological distress and quality of life in infertile Korean women seem to require psychological intervention. This study provides a baseline measurement of psychological distress and FertiQoL in infertile women in Korea, which will be available for developing psychological interventions for infertile Korean women.

Efficient isolation of sperm with high DNA integrity and stable chromatin packaging by a combination of density-gradient centrifugation and magnetic-activated cell sorting / 대한생식의학회지

OBJECTIVE: This study was carried out to investigate the correlations of the sperm DNA fragmentation index (DFI) with semen parameters and apoptosis, and to investigate the effects of density-gradient centrifugation (DGC) and magnetic-activated cell sorting (MACS) on reducing the proportion of sperm with DNA fragmentation and protamine deficiency. METHODS: Semen analysis and a sperm DNA fragmentation assay were performed to assess the correlations between semen parameters and the DFI in 458 semen samples. Sperm with progressive motility or non-apoptosis were isolated by DGC or MACS, respectively, in 29 normozoospermic semen samples. The effects of DGC or MACS alone and of DGC and MACS combined on reducing the amount of sperm in the sample with DNA fragmentation and protamine deficiency were investigated. RESULTS: The sperm DFI showed a significant correlation (r=–0.347, p<0.001) with sperm motility and morphology (r=–0.114, p<0.05) but not with other semen parameters. The DFI (11.5%±2.0%) of semen samples was significantly reduced by DGC (8.1%±4.1%) or MACS alone (7.4%±3.9%) (p<0.05). The DFI was significantly further reduced by a combination of DGC and MACS (4.1%±1.3%, p<0.05). Moreover, the combination of DGC and MACS (1.6%±1.1%, p<0.05) significantly reduced the protamine deficiency rate of semen samples compared to DGC (4.4%±3.2%) or MACS alone (3.4%±2.2%). CONCLUSION: The combination of DGC and MACS may be an effective method to isolate high-quality sperm with progressive motility, non-apoptosis, high DNA integrity, and low protamine deficiency in clinical use.

Clinical application of serum CA 125 and CA 19-9 in Endometriosis / 대한산부인과학회지

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to investigate the clinical usefulness of serum CA 125 and CA 19-9 levels for diagnosing and determining the severity of endometriosis. METHODS: A total of 112 women who underwent gynecologic surgery between January 1998 and August 2004 were selected in this study. 81 patients had histologically confirmed endometriosis and the remaining 31 had benign ovarian tumor but no obvious evidence of endometriosis. Blood samples were collected in all patients before the operation and the mean values and standard deviations of both serum CA 125 and CA 19-9 levels were measured in various stages of disease. Both tumor markers were also measured in the control group. The results were compared to determine the usefulness of CA 125 and CA 19-9 in diagnosing and predicting the severity of endometriosis. As a results, new cutoff values of serum CA 125 and CA 19-9 in endometriosis were obtained. RESULTS: The mean levels of serum CA 125 and CA 19-9 in patients at stage III and IV of endometriosis were significantly higher than in patients without endometriosis, and increased in accordance with the advancement of the clinical stage. Statistically appropriate cutoff values of CA 125 and CA 19-9 were calculated to be 20 IU/mL and 10 IU/mL, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of CA 125 at this cutoff value for endometriosis were 72% and 71%, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity were 59% and 55% respectively in the case of CA 19-9. CONCLUSION: CA 125 is a useful marker for diagnosing and determining the severity of endometriosis. CA 19-9 shows limitation in diagnosing endometriosis, but is indeed a potential marker in predicting the severity of disease.

A case of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor of pelvic cavity / 대한산부인과학회지

A 75-year-old female presented with a 1-month history of low abd pain. A 15 x 13 cm solid mass was noted in pelvic cavity by imaging study. The patient underwent an exploratory laparotomy, total abdominal hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, pelvic lymph node dissection and omentectomy. Immunohistochemistry aided in the final diagnosis of a malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor. The patient had several poor prognosis factor and relapsed into tumor and died 5 month after surgery. An extremely rare case of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor of pelvic cavity is reported with a brief review of the literature.