Effect of clomiphene citrate on follicular and luteal phase luteinizing hormone concentrations in in vitro fertilization cycles stimulated with gonadotropins and gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist.

Objective: To investigate the effect that clomiphene citrate exerts on luteinizing hormone (LH) concentrations in gonadotropin/gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist cycles.

Design: Retrospective analysis.

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

Reversion of autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome with an antimalarial drug: preliminary results of a clinical cohort study and molecular observations.

Autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome (ALPS) is a paediatric disease characterized by lymphoproliferation and autoimmunity. Most patients are known to carry heterozygous mutations of the TNFRSF6 gene leading to diminished Fas-mediated apoptosis and failure of activated lymphocytes to undergo apoptosis. A subgroup of patients without the TNFRSF6 gene mutation has similar defective apoptosis and clinical features.

Ovulation induction disrupts luteal phase function.

Abnormalities in the luteal phase have been detected in virtually all the stimulation protocols used in in vitro fertilization, on both the hormonal and endometrial levels. Supraphysiological follicular or luteal sex steroid serum concentrations, altered estradiol: progesterone (E2/P) ratio, and disturbed luteinizing hormone pituitary secretion leading to corpus luteum insufficiency or a direct drug effect have been postulated as the main etiologic factors. Luteinizing hormone supports corpus luteum function, and low LH levels have been described after human menopausal gonadotropin treatment, after gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)-agonist treatment, or after GnRH-antagonist treatment.

An attempt to reconstruct children's donor concept: a comparison between children's and lesbian parents' attitudes towards donor anonymity.

Background: This study investigated the donor concept of children who were born by means of donor insemination (DI), and their lesbian parents.

Methods: A total of 41 children aged between 7 and 17 years, and 45 parents, took part in the follow-up study. In-depth topic interviews were used to reconstruct how DI children and their mothers perceived the donor.

A new mitochondrial point mutation in the transfer RNA(Leu) gene in a patient with a clinical phenotype resembling Kearns-Sayre syndrome.

Objective: To report on the molecular identification of a novel heteroplasmic G-to-A transition at mitochondrial DNA position 3249 in transfer RNA(Leu) gene in a patient with a clinical phenotype resembling Kearns-Sayre syndrome.

Patient And Methods: A 34-year-old patient had been suffering for more than 10 years from progressive visual failure, neurosensorial hearing loss, exercise intolerance, muscle weakness, paresthesia in the lower limbs, and difficulties swallowing. Clinical examination revealed generalized muscle wasting, ptosis, external ophthalmoplegia, and ataxia.

Comparison of LH concentrations in the early and mid-luteal phase in IVF cycles after treatment with HMG alone or in association with the GnRH antagonist Cetrorelix.

Luteinizing hormone (LH) is mandatory for the maintenance of the corpus luteum. Ovarian stimulation for IVF has been associated with a defective luteal phase. The luteal phases of two groups of patients with normal menstrual cycles and no endocrinological cause of infertility were retrospectively analysed in IVF cycles.

Comparison between different routes of progesterone administration as luteal phase support in infertility treatments.

Different routes of natural progesterone supplementation have been tried as luteal phase support in infertility treatments. Orally administered progesterone is rapidly metabolized in the gastrointestinal tract and its use has proved to be inferior to i.m.

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis and sperm analysis by fluorescence in-situ hybridization for the most common reciprocal translocation t(11;22).

In this study we describe the pre-clinical development and clinical application of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) by fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) for two non-related carriers (one male and one female) of the most common balanced reciprocal translocation: t(11;22)(q25;q12). For the couple with the female carrier, enumeration of the sex chromosomes in the embryos was also indicated (husband: 47,XXY karyotype). Four-colour FISH analysis was performed on six blastomeres from three embryos.

The role of the number of replaced embryos on intracytoplasmic sperm injection outcome in women over the age of 40.

In order to examine if the transfer of more than three embryos has any beneficial effect on the outcome of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles in women aged > 40 years, a retrospective analysis was made of all the ICSI cycles which were performed in this age group from 1 October 1991 to 31 December 1995. A total of 525 cycles was performed in 321 patients. In 413 cycles, at least one normally fertilized embryo was available for transfer.

Cytogenetics of infertile men.

Chromosomally derived sterility has long been recognized. A review of the literature of somatic chromosome investigations in infertile males has shown that 13.7% of azoospermic males and 4.