Highest Resolution Images Ever of Eggs, Sperm, and Embryos captured using 5K ultra-HD video.

High resolution image of 5day old human blastocyst 

Morphology is the gold standard by which we can assess the quality of embryos and gametes for success of various fertility treatments.

Imaging science in Reproductive Medicine has not made much significant advances since the last decade. Current options consist of either direct visualization through microscope objectives (limited magnification) or image capture via CCD/CMOS chip and inspection on a monitor (limited resolution).

Doctors attending the recent American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, got the opportunity to visualize first-ever 5K ultra-HD video footage of eggs, sperm, and embryos. It amounts to 14 million pixels per frame, 7 times more than the 1080p Full HD living room television.

The man behind this amazing achievement is Steven F. Palter, MD, a fertility specialist and scientific director at Gold Coast IVF in Woodbury, NY. CDC recently recognized Gold Coast IVF for having highest success rate in USA.

Dr. Palter designed a coupling system to make the RED Camera compatible with an embryo microscope. RED is ultra-high-resolution digital camera company that has revolutionized the movie industry in Hollywood.

860 recordings of eggs, sperm and embryos were made during IVF and ICSI procedures at 400x-960x magnification. The final images then were magnified digitally many times more on 55 inch 4k observation screens, producing the highest magnification and resolution video of these human cells which yielded observations of new cellular details. Movement of individual sperm was observed using high frame that simplified selection.

Dr. Palter said “The images are the sharpest, most revealing images of eggs, sperm, and embryos ever created anywhere. At this level, we are exploring a new frontier of knowledge about human reproduction. It’s an unexplored, uncharted world and we saw new details of the cells never seen before.”

Cellular details and image quality was far superior than what can be viewed with standard microscope. Although, no new structure was identified, the new 5K ultra-HD images could better delineate the morphology of sperms, eggs and embryos for selecting and improving the results of ARTs.

Further validation studies are being carried out currently.

Full text of article in Fertility and Sterility Journal can be accessed here.  

News from American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) 2016 Scientific Congress-- Low AMH levels predict poor outcome in patients undergoing IVF-ET.

Clinical Pearls:

• Patients aged >34 years with low AMH levels displayed poorer IVF-ET outcome particularly, higher miscarriage rates that is not dependent on age and ovarian response to COH.

American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) 2016 Scientific Congress is currently ongoing (October 15 – 19) at  Salt Lake City, Utah. Some selected abstract and news from the conference.

Anti-Müllerian Hormone (AMH) has long been known to provide insight into ovarian function. It is produced by small, growing follicles, thus providing us with quantitative information on ovarian reserve.

While AMH levels predict the treatment outcome in controlled ovarian hyperstimulation, no data is available on its role in predicting miscarriages in patients undergoing IVF-ET. [1] Researchers are more and more interested to evaluate its role in oocyte competence and embryo health.

Results of a prospective study by  Tarasconi B et al at the ASRM 2016 conference shows the role played by levels of AMH and subsequent miscarriage rate in patients undergoing IVF-ET. [2] The paper is also published in a special supplement of Journal Fertility and Sterility.

The study authors examined 2,365 infertile women undergoing 2,688 IVF-ET cycles. All the women included in the study had serum AMH tested as reference with ELISA. Women were classified into 3 age groups: ≤33 years (n=1,033), 34-36 years (n=690) and ≥37 years (n=965) and into 3 different AMH groups: Low AMH (0.04-1.60 ng/mL; n=540), Intermediate AMH (1.61-5.59 ng/mL; n=1,608), and High AMH (5.60-35.00 ng/mL; n=540).

After analyzing the data by binary logistic regression, it was seen that clinical pregnancy and live birth rate were directly proportional to levels of AMH, with miscarriage rate being highest in the low AMH level group.

The results were statistically significant in older women in the two age groups of 34-36 years and ≥37 years.

When the whole population was included as one variable, regression analysis showed direct association between patient’s AMH levels and rate of miscarriages independent of age and number of oocyte retrieved.

The study findings support the hypothesis that AMH levels are biomarker of oocyte and embryo reproductive health beside predicting number of oocyte obtained by COH. 

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[1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23644117 accessed on October17, 2016.

[2] http://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(16)61512-1/fulltext