Transfer of blastocysts with deviant morphological and morphokinetic parameters at early stages of in-vitro development: a case series

Time-lapse imaging is increasingly applied as an adjunct to reproductive medicine. The gained information of the morphological and morphokinetic variables before the onset of transcription are supposed to be good predictors for the selection of the best embryo for transfer and are often seen in line with clinical outcomes. This retrospective case series investigated the outcome of transferred blastocysts that did not fulfil the proposed embryo scores at early cleavage or at later stages of development. The observations were made by time-lapse imaging. This study reports the birth of 16 healthy children after day-5 blastocyst transfer, of which at least one of the transferred embryos originated from deviant morphology and/or kinetic cleavage patterns. This case series suggests that some blastocysts derived from embryos with poor conventional morphological score and/or suboptimal morphokinetics can be successfully transferred and might result in live births. Such results might raise awareness that discarding embryos based only on early events is not a suitable approach to give patients the chance to conceive. In conclusion, to date only the transfer of viable embryos after culturing them until day 5 guarantees optimal embryo selection and helps to prevent embryo wastage. (C) 2014, Reproductive Healthcare Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.