Relationship between endometrial blood flow measured by three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound and pregnancy for women who received the treatment of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer

Abstract

Objective To evaluate whether endometrial blood flow measured by three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound can predict pregnacy after the treatment of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET).Methods Ninty women who received the treatment of IVF-ET examined by threedimensional power Doppler imaging at the day of inject human chorionic gonadotropin(HCG) were enrolled.All patients were divided into pregnancy group (43 cases,include biochemical pregnancy and clinical pregnancy ) and non-pregnancy group(47 cases).The diagnostic value of parameters derived from threedimensional power Doppler imaging was evaluated by using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC)curve.Results Differences of these parameters,including vascularization index (VI),flow index(Fl) and vascularization flow index (VFI) were considered statistically significant between two groups,the parameters of uterine artery and endometrial volume had no significant differences between two groups.The area under ROC curve of VI,FI and VFI were 0.880,0.713 and 0.646,respectively.Among these parameters,VI had the highest diagnostic value for discriminating between benign and malignant endometrium,the cut-off value of which was 0.733 with a sensitivity of 84.2％.Conclusions Threedimensional power Doppler ultrasound was useful for evaluating endometrial blood flow in IVF-ET cycles.Endometrial blood flow parameters may be useful predictors for pregnancy. Key words: Ultrasonography, three-dimensional; Endometrium; Fertilization in vitro; Embryo transfer