Clinical predictive criteria associated with live birth following elective single embryo transfer

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to define clinical criteria from the patients related to the occurrence of live birth in case of elective single embryo transfer (eSET).

Study design: We analyzed retrospectively 409 eSET at day 2/3 between March 2005 and July 2012, proposed in case of (i) woman's age <37 years, (ii) first/second IVF0 cycle, (iii) ≥2 good quality embryos obtained (3-5/6-10 blastomeres at day 2/3 and <20% fragmentation), including one top embryo (4/8 cells). In all, 124/409 live births (30.3%) were obtained, separating patients into groups of women who had birth or not. Different clinical parameters of interest were compared between each group, using appropriate statistical tests at p<0.05 significance level.

Results: By comparing Body Mass Index (BMI), we report a statistically higher BMI among women who did not deliver (24.6 vs. 23.4kg/m(2); p=0.014). Using an analysis by BMI categories, we also precise a threshold of BMI≥30kg/m(2), negatively associated with the occurrence of live birth.

Conclusion: BMI appears to be the only clinical parameter statistically associated with delivery following eSET strategy in a good prognosis infertile population.

Keywords: Elective single embryo transfer; IVF/ICSI; Live birth; Predictive parameters.