COMPARISON OF PULSATILITY INDEXES ON THE DAY OF OOCYTE RETRIEVAL AND EMBRYO-TRANSFER

Transvaginal ultrasonography with colour blood flow imaging and analys is of impedance to uterine arterial blood flow has been used to provid e an index of uterine receptivity for implantation after IVF/embryo tr ansfer, A mean uterine arterial pulsatility index (PI) >3.0 at the tim e of embryo transfer predicted 35% of failures to become pregnant, Cry opreserving embryos in non-receptive cycles and transferring them in r eceptive cycles would be expected to improve pregnancy rates, Earlier decisions regarding embryo cryopreservation can be made if receptive c ycles can be predicted at the time of oocyte retrieval rather than at embryo transfer, To assess differences in uterine artery impedance, PI were measured serially in 107 women on both the day of oocyte retriev al and the day of embryo transfer, Mean PI on the day of oocyte retrie val was 2.52 +/- 0.59, and on the day of embryo transfer was 2.78 +/- 0.45, No significant difference was observed when PI determined on the day of oocyte retrieval were compared with PI on the day of embryo tr ansfer. These data suggest that the PI measurement done on the day of oocyte retrieval could substitute for the measurement done on the day of embryo transfer, This would allow prediction of nonreceptive endome tria earlier in the cycle, Further studies are needed to evaluate whet her cryopreservation of embryos and transfer when the uterus is more r eceptive will increase the implantation rates.