Faculty Bibliography

We describe our experience of over 300 cycles of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) and report clinical pregnancy rates (35%-67%) that support using this technology to screen for genetic disorders and chromosomal abnormalities. In clinical practice for over ten years, PGD offers couples the earliest form of genetic screening and may help improve ongoing pregnancy rates in poor-prognosis patients

In a 6-year review of ectopic pregnancies (EPs) after fresh and frozen embryo transfers in IVF cycles conducted at a large university-based program, we report an overall 0.9% rate of EP that seems to have increased with the programmatic shift to routine blastocyst transfer, but remains lower than nationally reported rates. Aggressive management of tubal disease may contribute to low rates of EP, whereas blastocyst transfer may increase the rate

To assess whether the use of extended embryo culture can reduce the incidence of high-order multiple gestations, a retrospective analysis of 7,418 fresh ETs performed in a university-based IVF clinic from 1997-2003 was conducted, comparing program results before and after institution of a protocol to select patients for extended culture of in vitro fertilized embryos. The incidence of triplet pregnancies was significantly reduced in patients at highest risk for high-order multiple gestations, i.e., those at <35 years of age (16.8% versus 6.8%), those at 35-37 years of age (13.0% versus 5.6%), and recipients of donated oocytes (11.2% versus 4.5%)