Abstract
Objectives
The role of air bubbles in bracketing the embryo-containing medium in inner catheter during embryo transfer (ET) has already been established. However, the role of air bubbles in outer catheter (OC) during implantation is yet to be determined. This study aimed to compare the implantation rates between women who have undergone ET with or without ASP (Vitrolife®; Sweden), a medium use for oocyte retrieval and rinsing in OC embryo catheter. The purpose of introducing the ASP medium to the OC was to eliminate air bubbles in that space during implantation.
Methods
A total of 312 women were randomly divided into two groups with 156 participants each group. In Group A, ASP medium was used during ET, whereas in Group B, no ASP medium was utilized. Positive implantation was defined as serum beta-hCG level >5 mIU/mL taken on the 7th day following ET.
Results
The average age of the majority of the participants was 30–39 years and had at least 4–5 years of subfertility. The unexplained subfertility was the prominent cause of ET failure in both groups. In most of the participants in both groups, ET was done using fresh embryo cycles with good to excellent embryo grades. After the ASP medium was manipulated in the OC in both groups, the positive implantation rate was not different in both groups (p>0.05).
Conclusions
The elimination of air bubbles in OC by using the ASP medium during ET did not confer an additional benefit nor exert a negative impact on implantation rate.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the staff of the Advanced Reproductive Centre (ARC) at University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) Kuala Lumpur for their assistance in the conduct of this study. We would like to convey our appreciation to Secretariat of Research and Innovation, Faculty of Medicine UKM for helping use in securing ethical clearance and supporting the progress of this research.
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Research funding: We declared that is no funding is required in this study.
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Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
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Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.
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Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.
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Ethical approval: The ethic approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (JEP-2019-872) prior to data collection.
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