Effects of laser polar-body biopsy on embryo quality

Objective: To evaluate the effect of laser polar-body biopsy (PBB) for preimplantation genetic diagnosis on embryo quality. Study design: Retrospective case-control analysis. The quality of 145 embryos after PBB was compared to 276 embryos of the same group of women without biopsy. Setting: University-based tertiary-care medical center. Patient(s): Women with inherited genetics disease. Intervention(s): Laser PBB of IVF embryos for genetic diagnosis. Main Outcome Measure(s): The study and control embryos were compared for fertilization rate, pronuclear grading, and cleavage-stage parameters on days 1, 2, and 3 after oocyte retrieval. Result(s): The study embryos demonstrated higher rates of cleavage arrest (3.6% vs. 0.7%), higher rate of significant fragmentation on day 2 (9.5% vs. 3.0%), and lower rate of good cleavage embryos on day 2 (69.1% vs. 78.4%) compared with control embryos. On day 3, the study embryos had lower cleavage rates (six or more blastomeres; 56.5% vs. 74.5%), higher fragmentation (11.7% vs. 3.9%), higher rate of embryos presenting inferior cleavage pattern (57.2% vs. 38.5%), and lower mean blastomere number (5.8 ± 2.1 vs. 6.6 ± 1.9) compared with control embryos. Conclusion(s): Polar-body biopsy may have a negative effect on embryo quality.