Not applicable.

N/A.

FETs performed immediately after fresh IVF cycles had CPRs similar to those postponed to a later time. Therefore, deferring FETs may unnecessarily prolong time to pregnancy.

28 February 2013.

Aim: To determine how accurately and confidently examiners with different levels of ultrasound experience can classify adnexal masses as benign or malignant and suggest a specific histological diagnosis when evaluating ultrasound images using pattern recognition. Methods: Ultrasound images of selected adnexal masses were evaluated by 3 expert sonologists, 2 senior and 4 junior trainees. They were instructed to classify the masses using pattern recognition as benign or malignant, to state the level of confidence with which this classification was made and to suggest a specific histological diagnosis. Sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and positive and negative likelihood ratios (LR+ and LR–) with regard to malignancy were calculated. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of pattern recognition was calculated by using six levels of diagnostic confidence. Results: 166 masses were examined, of which 42% were malignant. Sensitivity with regard to malignancy ranged from 80 to 86% for the experts, was 70 and 84% for the 2 senior trainees and ranged from 70 to 86% for the junior trainees. The specificity of the experts ranged from 79 to 91%, was 77 and 89% for the senior trainees and ranged from 59 to 83% for the junior trainees. The experts were uncertain about their diagnosis in 4–13% of the cases, the senior trainees in 15–20% and the junior trainees in 67–100% of the cases. The AUCs ranged from 0.861 to 0.922 for the experts, were 0.842 and 0.855 for the senior trainees, and ranged from 0.726 to 0.795 for the junior trainees. The experts suggested a correct specific histological diagnosis in 69–77% of the cases. All 6 trainees did so significantly less often (22–42% of the cases). Conclusion: Expert sonologists can accurately classify adnexal masses as benign or malignant and can successfully predict the specific histological diagnosis in many cases. Whilst less experienced operators perform reasonably well when predicting the benign or malignant nature of the mass, they do so with a very low level of diagnostic confidence and are unable to state the likely histology of a mass in most cases.

N/A.

Objective To assess pregnancy outcome after conisation.Design Retrospective cohort study.Setting Belgium, data from a university hospital.Population Fifty-five pregnancies in 34 women after conisation, and 55 pregnancies in 54 women without a history of conisation or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN).Methods Hospital data were reviewed and questionnaires were collected from 599 women who had a conisation in a 5-year period, among whom subsequent pregnancies were identified. The control group consisted of matched pregnancies of women without a history of conisation.Main outcome measures Gestational age at delivery, neonatal biometry, neonatal condition at birth.Results Numbers of sexual partners (4.6 ± 3.4 SD versus 2.5 ± 2.5 SD) and ex-smokers were significantly higher in the study group compared with the control group. Gestational age at delivery (266 ± 2 days versus 274 ± 9 days), neonatal head circumference (33.9 ± 2.5 cm, versus 34.6 ± 2.5 cm) and birthweight (3088 ± 754 g versus 3381 ± 430 g) were significantly lower in the study group compared with the control group. Numbers of preterm [<37 weeks; 14/55 (25%) versus 2/55 (4%); P = 0.002] and severe preterm (<34 weeks; 6/ 55 (11%) versus 0/55 (0%); P = 0.031] deliveries in the study group were significantly higher. There were no cases of perinatal mortality.Conclusions Conisation affects obstetrical outcome after conisation for CIN. Babies tend to be born earlier and are smaller. It is not clear whether this is related to the procedure or to factors linked with CIN.

Chromosome instability is inherent to human IVF embryos, but the full spectrum and developmental fate of chromosome anomalies remain uncharacterized. Using haplotyping-based preimplantation genetic testing for monogenic diseases (PGT-M), we mapped the parental and mechanistic origin of common and rare genomic abnormalities in 2300 cleavage stage and 361 trophectoderm biopsies. We show that while single whole chromosome aneuploidy arises due to chromosome-specific meiotic errors in the oocyte, segmental imbalances predominantly affect paternal chromosomes, implicating sperm DNA damage in segmental aneuploidy formation. We also show that postzygotic aneuploidy affects multiple chromosomes across the genome and does not discriminate between parental homologs. In addition, 6% of cleavage stage embryos demonstrated signatures of tripolar cell division with excessive chromosome loss, however hypodiploid blastomeres can be excluded from further embryo development. This observation supports the selective-pressure hypothesis in embryos. Finally, considering that ploidy violations may constitute a significant proportion of non-viable embryos, using haplotyping-based approach to map these events might further improve IVF success rate.