Morphometric study of the stromal vascularization in peritoneal endometriosis.

To evaluate the stromal vascularization of different appearances of peritoneal endometriosis, biopsies were taken from peritoneal areas with endometriosis in a series of 135 infertile women and classified as typical (black), red, or white lesions. The number of capillaries per mm2 of stroma, their mean surface area, and the ratio of capillaries/stroma surface area, and the mitotic activity were analyzed in typical, red, and white lesions. Significant differences were found between the different subgroups. The higher vascularization and mitotic activity observed in red lesions suggested the hypothesis that such lesions are very active and probably the first stage of early implantation of endometrial glands and stroma. The poor vascularization and the absence of mitosis observed in white lesions suggested that these lesions are much less active than red lesions and are a quiescent stage of the disease. Our study proves that the "activity" of peritoneal endometriosis is related to the vascularity. This concept must be considered in the further discussion of American Fertility Society Endometriosis Classification. Typical, red and white lesions are three different stages of the peritoneal disease and their relative relation to infertility is also probably different.

Prediction of individual response to controlled ovarian hyperstimulation by means of a clomiphene citrate challenge test.

A clomiphene citrate (CC) challenge test was carried out in 114 patients to evaluate the capacity of this test to predict the patient's individual response to controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) performed with a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist and human menopausal gonadotrophins (hMG) for in vitro fertilization. The sum of follicle-stimulating hormone measured before and after CC intake, is the parameter that correlated best with subsequent response to COH. The upper limit of the reference value for this parameter, established by considering the CC challenge test performed on 26 patients who became pregnant, was 26.03 mIU/mL. Twenty patients who presented a CC challenge test result above the reference value were compared with patients with a normal test result. For these 20 patients, COH required more hMG and was cancelled in 25% of the cases (instead of 1% in the control group). The number of follicles aspirated, oocytes retrieved, and embryos obtained were on average six times lower than in patients with a CC challenge test result within the reference value, and no pregnancy was obtained. We concluded that CC challenge test provides a reliable individual prognosis for the ovarian response to COH.