Ultrasound-guided miduterine cavity embryo transfer is associated with a decreased incidence of retained embryos in the transfer catheter.
After initiating a policy of ultrasound-guided miduterine cavity embryo transfer (ET) on August 1, 2001, the incidence of retained embryos in the transfer catheter declined significantly from 4.2% (46 of 1,101 ETs) during the time interval January 1, 2000 to July 31, 2001, to 0.7% (6 of 908 ETs) during the time interval August 1, 2001 to December 31, 2002. Blood on the transfer catheter (38% vs. 19%) occurred with significantly greater frequency at ET in which embryos were retained; ETs of > or =4 embryos were more likely to be associated with retained embryos than ETs of <4 embryos (3.7% vs. 2.2%), and both the clinical pregnancy rate (PR) and implantation rate (IR) were lower when embryo retention occurred at ET than they were when embryos were not retained (25% vs. 34% clinical PR; 12% vs. 19% IR).
Silberstein
Tali
T
Division of Biology and Medicine, Brown Medical School, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Trimarchi
James R
JR
Shackelton
Rebecca
R
Weitzen
Sherry
S
Frankfurter
David
D
Plosker
Shayne
S
D002404:Catheterization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004624:Embryo Transfer / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian; D019160:Endosonography / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011247:Pregnancy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014599:Uterus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*