To study the impact of blood and mucus on embryo transfer catheter tip and IVF outcome

Abstract

Background: To study the impact of blood and mucus on embryo transfer (ET) catheter tip and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) outcome. Aims: To compare the implantation rate and clinical pregnancy rate of blood and mucus on ET catheter tip. Study setting: Ajanta Hospital and IVF Centre, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Study design: Prospective observational comparative study. Study period: August 2019 to March 2020. Material and methods: In this prospective observational comparative study, 60 patients undergoing IVF-ET were included in the study. Patients were observed for the presence of blood or mucus on the ET catheter tip. The tip of the ET inner catheter was examined under the microscope for the presence of blood or mucus. Statistical analysis: Statistical analysis was performed by the SPSS program of Windows, version 17.0 (SPSS, Chicago, Illinois). Continuous variables being presented as mean ± SD. Normally distributed continuous variables were compared by unpaired t test, whereas the Mann-Whitney U test used for not normally distributed variables. Categorical variables are analyzed by chi square test or Fisher test. P < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant.Results: By this study, it is observed that the implantation rate for mucus group was 66%, whereas for blood group is 20.6% (P value < 0.001). It is observed that the clinical pregnancy rate for mucus group was 66.7%, whereas for blood group was 29.2% (P value = 0.004). Conclusion: A successful ET needs to be smooth, easy to transfer, and have an atraumatic path through cervix and slow transfer of embryos in the endometrium for good implantation rate. This study showed that when blood was present on the ET catheter, there was decreased clinical pregnancy rate and implantation rate, whereas implantation rate (IR) and clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) were unaffected when mucus was present on catheter