مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Influence of isolated leukocytospermia on in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection treatment outcomes

Abstract :

Purpose: To investigate the effect of isolated leukocytospermia detected incidentally at the day of oocyte retrieval on in vitro fertilization / intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) treatment outcomes.Materials and methods:This retrospective study included patients who underwent IVF/ICSI treatment at the Akdeniz University Reproductive Centre between January 2015 and March 2016. The electronical database was screened to identify the patients with isolated leukospermia detected at the day of oocyte retrieval. Seventy patients whose semen samples had leukospermia (≥1x10(6)/mL) were retrospectively matched for women’s age, metaphase 2 (M2) oocytes and previous unsuccessful attempts at IVF with 70 patients without leukospermia ( 1x10(6)/mL). Fertilization rates, embryo qualities and pregnancy outcomes were compared between groups.Results: The number of M2 oocytes and 2-pronuclei were similar between groups (p 0.05). However, fertilization rate was found to be significantly lower in leukospermia group (%61.4 vs. %69.7, p=0.012). The number of high quality embryos as well as developmental rate of high quality embryos from fertilized oocytes and high quality blastocysts from high quality cleavage stage embryos were comparable between groups (p 0.05).Leukospermia group had increased number of patients with total fertilization failure (%14.3 vs. %2.9, p=0.016) and cycle cancelation (%34.3 vs. %17.1, p=0.020) rates. Although positive beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (β-hCG) rate per cycle was higher in the control group (p=0.033), positive β-hCG and clinical pregnancy rates per embryo transfer were found to be comparable between the groups (p 0.05).Conclusion: Leukospermia might affect the fertilization and therefore increase total fertilization failures and cycle cancelations. However, if fertilization occurs successfully, this situation might not have adverse effects on embryo development and pregnancy outcomes.