The association between multinucleated blastomeres and poor ovarian response under the Bologna criteria.

Purpose: To investigate the occurrence of multinucleated blastomeres (MNB) in poor ovarian response (POR) women defined under the Bologna criteria.

Methods: This observational study was designed in a prospective controlled manner. Among 380 cases evaluated for eligibility, 102 women were found suitable and recruited; 51 with POR in accordance with the Bologna criteria defined as the study group and 51 with normal ovarian response defined as the control group.

Results: Among the 51 women in each group, 8 and 2 did not achieve embryos in the study and control group, respectively (P < 0.05). The percentage of women that had at least one embryo with one MNB was significantly higher in the study as compared to the control group, corresponding to 49 and 29 %, respectively. The total number of embryos evaluated was 416; 167 in the study and 249 in the control groups. Among these embryos, the MNB rate was significantly higher in the study as compared to the control group, corresponding to 19 and 8 %, respectively.

Conclusions: Blastomere multinuclearity is significantly more common in women and embryos of POR cases, defined under the Bologna criteria. Future studies are warranted to substantiate our observation that has the potential to be clinically implemented in this sub-group of women undergoing assisted reproductive technologies (ART) treatment.