Unaltered timing of embryo development in women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS): a time-lapse study.

Purpose: Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is a common cause of female infertility. Factors other than anovulation, such as low embryo quality have been suggested to contribute to the infertility in these women. This 2-year retrospective study used timelapse technology to investigate the PCOS-influence on timing of development in the pre-implantation embryo (primary endpoint).

Inter- and intra-observer variability of time-lapse annotations.

Study Question: How consistent is the time-lapse annotation of dynamic and static morphologic parameters of embryo development, within and between observers?

Summary Answer: The assessment of dynamic parameters is characterized by almost perfect agreement within and between observers.

What Is Known Already: The commonly employed method used to assess embryos in IVF treatments is based on static evaluation of morphology in a microscope, but this is limited by substantial intra- and inter-observer variation. Time-lapse imaging has been proposed as a method to refine embryo selection by adding new dynamic predictors of viability to the assessment.

Tetraploidy in hydatidiform moles.

Study Question: How does tetraploidy develop in hydatidiform moles (HMs), and what is the frequency of the different origins?

Summary Answer: Most molar pregnancies with tetraploid cells appear to be produced by somatic endoreduplications, while a minority originate from a tetraploid zygote. The frequency of zygotic tetraploidy was estimated to be 0.7%.