Endometrial and subendometrial vascularity is higher in pregnant patients with livebirth following ART than in those who suffer a miscarriage.
BACKGROUND
Blood flow towards the peri-implantation endometrium may have effects on miscarriage and live birth following assisted reproduction treatment, in addition to its role in implantation.


METHODS
Three-dimensional ultrasound examination with power Doppler was performed on the day of oocyte retrieval in stimulated IVF cycles and on LH + 1 day in frozen thawed-embryo transfer (FET) cycles to measure endometrial thickness, endometrial pattern, uterine artery Doppler flow indices, endometrial volume, vascularization index (VI), flow index (FI), vascularization flow index (VFI) of endometrial and subendometrial regions.


RESULTS
In stimulated IVF cycles, 45 (28.0%) out of 161 pregnant patients subsequently miscarried. Patients in the live birth group had significantly higher endometrial VI and VFI and subendometrial VI, FI and VFI, when compared with those in the miscarriage group. In a multiple logistic regression analysis, only endometrial VI was significantly associated with the chance of live birth with an odds ratio of 1.384 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.025-1.869, P = 0.034]. For FET cycles, patients in the live birth group had significantly higher endometrial VFI, subendometrial VI and VFI than those in the miscarriage group.


CONCLUSIONS
Endometrial and subendometrial vascularity was significantly higher in pregnant patients with live birth following stimulated IVF and FET treatment than in those who suffered a miscarriage.
Ng
Ernest Hung Yu
EH
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China. nghye@hkucc.hku.hk
Chan
Carina Chi Wai
CC
Tang
Oi Shan
OS
Yeung
William Shu Biu
WS
Ho
Pak Chung
PC
D000022:Abortion, Spontaneous; D000328:Adult; D001757:Blastomeres; D004624:Embryo Transfer; D004717:Endometrium / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005307:Fertilization in Vitro; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D012372:ROC Curve; D027724:Reproductive Techniques, Assisted; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013997:Time Factors; D018608:Ultrasonography, Doppler