Novel image analyser-assisted morphometric methodology offer unique opportunity for selection of embryos with potential for implantation

BACKGROUND: Previous studies looked into the connections between pregnancy and the Zona Pellucida (ZP) thickness and Zona Pellucida Thickness Variation (ZPTV), as well as the embryo's radius, circumference, perimeter and global symmetry. However, no research has linked embryo implantation and pregnancy to the percentage of ZP thinning, the reduction in ooplasm volume, and the increase in perivitelline space (PVS) volume. Our objective is to correlate the percentage of ZP thinning, the percentage of ooplasm volume shrinkage and the percentage of PVS increase to the implantation. These data will be used for embryo selection as well as it can be put into a software that will assist embryo selection.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective study included 281 patients, all of them had 2 embryos transferred, 149 patients got pregnant with two gestation sacs and 132 patients did not get pregnant. All of the transferred embryos had the ZP thickness measured several times from time of ICSI till Embryo Transfer (ET), the ooplasm volume was calculated from time of ICSI till two Pronuclei (2PN) fading and the PVS was calculated from the ICSI time till the 2PN fading.

RESULTS: The first characteristic is the change in the average ZP thickness that decreased by 32.7% + 5.3% at 70 h for the implanted embryos (Group 1) versus 23.6% + 4.8% for non-implanted embryos (Group 2) p = 0.000. The second characteristic is the average reduction in the volume of the ooplasm which is 20.5% + 4.3% in Group 1 versus 15.1% + 5.2% in Group 2, p = 0.000. The third characteristic is the increase in the volume of the PVS which was 38.1% + 7.6% in Group 1 versus 31.6% + 9.7% in Group 2 p = 0.000.

CONCLUSION: The implanted embryos showed higher percent of ZP thinning, higher percent of ooplasm reduction and higher percent of PVS increase.