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Establishment of day 7 blastocyst freezing criteria using blastocyst diameter for single vitrified-warmed blastocyst transfer from live birth outcomes: a single-center, large cohort, retrospectively matched study

  • Assisted Reproduction Technologies
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Abstract

Purpose

To establish blastocyst freezing criteria for day 7 blastocyst (day 7 BL) for single vitrified-warmed blastocyst transfer (SVBT) by examining the diameter of blastocysts.

Methods

Patients who underwent day 7 BL transfer cycles (1143 cycles, mean age: 38.5 ± 3.5) and randomly selected patients after 1:1 matching who underwent day 6 BL transfer cycles and day 2-single-embryo transfer (SET) cycles were used for analysis. Comparison of the miscarriage (per clinical pregnancy) and live birth rates were made among day 2-SET, day 7 BL, and day 6 BL. These blastocyst groups were stratified into six groups based on blastocyst diameter, namely, 180 μm, 190 μm, 200 μm, 210 μm, over 220 μm, and hatched, for making the freezing criteria.

Results

For each diameter, 180 μm, 190 μm, 200 μm, 210 μm, over 220 μm, and hatched, the live birth rates of day 7 BL after SVBT were 9.0%, 11.9%, 11.5%, 15.6%, 20.0%, and 19.9%, respectively. Compared with the 14.6% live birth rate of the day 2-SET group, the live birth rate of 220 μm day 7 BL was significantly higher (P < 0.05) and was around the same in other diameter groups.

Conclusion

Our study demonstrates that sufficient live birth rates can be obtained after SVBT even from blastocysts on day 7 when blastocysts were vitrified at expanded blastocyst stage of over 180 μm of diameter or at hatched blastocyst stage and were transferred at the optimal time. This is the first study to establish a day 7 blastocyst freezing criteria using blastocyst diameter, which is an objective assessment way.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kato Ladies Clinic, 7-20-3, Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 160-0023, Japan

    Satoshi Ueno, Kazuo Uchiyama, Tomoko Kuroda, Tadashi Okimura, Akiko Yabuuchi, Tamotsu Kobayashi & Keiichi Kato

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  1. Satoshi Ueno
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  2. Kazuo Uchiyama
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  3. Tomoko Kuroda
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  4. Tadashi Okimura
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  5. Akiko Yabuuchi
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  6. Tamotsu Kobayashi
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  7. Keiichi Kato
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Correspondence to Keiichi Kato.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This study was reviewed and approved by the independent Institutional Review Board of Kato Ladies Clinic, Tokyo (IRB approval number: 19-30).

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Ueno, S., Uchiyama, K., Kuroda, T. et al. Establishment of day 7 blastocyst freezing criteria using blastocyst diameter for single vitrified-warmed blastocyst transfer from live birth outcomes: a single-center, large cohort, retrospectively matched study. J Assist Reprod Genet 37, 2327–2335 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-020-01882-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-020-01882-8

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