Role of oxidative stress on vaginal bleeding during the first trimester of pregnant women

Reactive oxygen species [ROS] are produced in many metabolic and physiologic processes. Antioxidative mechanisms remove these harmful species. Our aim was to assess whether serum total antioxidant capacity and total oxidant status altered during first trimester pregnancies with vaginal bleeding. In this cross-sectional study, A group of pregnant women at less than 10 weeks of gestation with vaginal bleeding [n=25] and a control group of healthy pregnancies with similar characteristics [n=25] were included. All of the patients in the two groups were matched for age, gestational age and body mass index. Serum total antioxidant capacity and total oxidant status levels were determined using a Hitachi 912 analyzer and compared between the two groups. Characteristics, including maternal age, parity, and gestational age were similar between the two groups. Serum total antioxidant capacity levels were significantly lower in the women with vaginal bleeding than in control women [1.16 +/- 0.20 vs.1.77 +/- 0.08 mmol Trolox Equiv. /L; p=0.001], whereas higher total oxidant status measurements were found in women with vaginal bleeding compared to the control group [4.01 +/- 0.20 vs.2.57 +/- 0.65 micromol H[2]O[2] Equiv. /L; p=0.001]. Increased total oxidant status might be involved in the pathophysiology of vaginal bleeding during early first trimester pregnancies

Analysis of 232 total fertilization failure cycles during intracytoplasmic sperm injection

The intracytoplasmic sperm injection procedure ending with total fertilization failure is very distressfull event for both the clinician and the patient. The aim of this study was to identify independent factors which could be used to identify total fertilization failure before the day of intracytoplasmic sperm injection. This was a retrospective study of 232 patients who were admitted to a tertiary-care hospital IVF Unit and showed total fertilization failure during intracytoplasmic sperm injection cycles. To sort out the interwined effects of female age, basal FSH, sperm quality, antral follicle count, starting dose of gonadotrophine, sperm extraction technique, cycle length, >14 mm follicle number, oocyte number after oocyte pick up, estradiol and progesterone level on the day of hCG and the MI, MII and GV oocyte number on the fertilization, multiple logistic regression analysis was used. The total fertilization failure rate was 6% and the recurrance rate was 23%. The original model illustrated that the presence of GV oocytes, total oocyte number less than six, <2000 pg/mL E2 concentration on the day of hCG and testicular sperm extraction increases the total fertilization failure risk. It is very difficult to predict total fertilization failure. Sometimes even with one good quality oocyte and sperm and in the case of globozoospermia fertilization can be achieved. Not only azoospermia but also low oocyte numbers increase the chance of total fertilization failure even after intracytoplasmic sperm injection