Effect of laser zona thinning on vitrified–warmed embryo transfer at the cleavage stage: a prospective, randomized study

Valojerdi, Mojtaba Rezazadeh; Eftekhari-Yazdi, Poopak; Karimian, Leila; Hassani, Fatemeh; Movaghar, Bahar

doi:10.1016/j.rbmo.2009.11.002

« Previous Next »Reproductive BioMedicine Online
Volume 20, Issue 2 , Pages 234-242, February 2010

Effect of laser zona thinning on vitrified–warmed embryo transfer at the cleavage stage: a prospective, randomized study

Mojtaba Rezazadeh Valojerdi
- Embryology Department, Reproductive Medicine Research Center, Royan Institute, 12 Hafez St., Banihashem St., Resalat St., PO Box 19395-4644, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
- Department of Anatomy, School of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran
- Corresponding author.
Poopak Eftekhari-Yazdi
- Embryology Department, Reproductive Medicine Research Center, Royan Institute, 12 Hafez St., Banihashem St., Resalat St., PO Box 19395-4644, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
Leila Karimian
- Embryology Department, Reproductive Medicine Research Center, Royan Institute, 12 Hafez St., Banihashem St., Resalat St., PO Box 19395-4644, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
Fatemeh Hassani
- Embryology Department, Reproductive Medicine Research Center, Royan Institute, 12 Hafez St., Banihashem St., Resalat St., PO Box 19395-4644, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
Bahar Movaghar
- Embryology Department, Reproductive Medicine Research Center, Royan Institute, 12 Hafez St., Banihashem St., Resalat St., PO Box 19395-4644, ACECR, Tehran, Iran

Received 16 March 2009; received in revised form 7 April 2009; accepted 3 November 2009. published online 21 December 2009.

Declaration: The authors report no financial or commercial conflicts of interest.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine if laser zona thinning could improve the rates of pregnancy and implantation for vitrified–warmed embryo transfer at the cleavage stage. A total of 400 vitrified–warmed embryo transfer cycles were randomly assigned to either the test group or the control group. The zona pellucida of vitrified–warmed embryos in the patients of the control group was untreated, whereas in the test group it was partially thinned by laser just before embryo transfer. In the test group, the clinical pregnancy and implantation rates were significantly lower as compared with that of the control group (28.5 versus 43.0, P=0.002, and 11.2 versus 16.7, P=0.004, respectively). Therefore the results of this investigation show that laser zona thinning may have an unexpected adverse effect on the rates of clinical pregnancy and implantation of vitrified–warmed embryos at the cleavage stage.

Keywords: cleavage stage, laser zona thinning, pregnancy rate, vitrified–warmed embryo

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Mojtaba Rezazadeh Valojerdi obtained his PhD degree (1990) in Anatomy from University of Glasgow in UK. At present, he is full professor in Anatomy and Embryology at University of Tarbiat Modarres, and Head of the Embryology Department at Royan Fertility and Infertility Research Center, Tehran. He is member of Research and Ethics committees at University of Tarbiat Modarres and has more than 200 publications in national and international journals. He serves as ad-hoc reviewer or is in the Editorial Board of different national journals dealing with Cell Biology and Human Reproduction. His current research interests include assisted reproduction, embryo cryopreservation, and differentiation of stem cells.