Women who received ovarian cystectomy for endometriomas have fewer oocytes harvested during IVF treatment. However, their chance of pregnancy was comparable to patients with tubal problems who underwent IVF treatment.

Early cleavage embryos possess greater implantation potential. Embryo transfer containing early cleavage embryos had a better clinical pregnancy rate.

Purpose : In this study, the method of employing preretrieval vaginal douching with aqueous povidone iodine is examined to see if it can decrease the incidence of pelvic abscess without compromising the clinical outcome of IVF-ET. Methods : Patients with ovarian endometrioma and received IVF-ET treatment were retrospectively classified into two groups according to the difference of vaginal douching solution immediately before oocyte retrieval. Results : There was no difference in the fertilization rate (81.2% versus 79.8%, P > 0.05), implantation rate (19.2% versus 23.3%, P > 0.05), clinical pregnancy rate (39.3% versus 46.2%, P > 0.05) between the two groups. There was no infection in patients of group two but two cases in group one developed pelvic abscess and needed surgical intervention. Conclusions : Vaginal douching with aqueous povidone iodine followed by normal saline irrigation immediately before oocyte retrieval is effective in preventing the pelvic infection without compromising the outcome of IVF treatment.

Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA), a naturally occurring disulfide derivative of octanoic acid, serves as a strong antioxidant and has been reported to possess anti-inflammatory effects. The aim of the present study is to investigate the preventive and therapeutic effects of ALA on multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) caused by endotoxemia in rats. Male Wistar rats were intravenously infused with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (10 mg/kg) to induce endotoxemia. Alpha-lipoic acid 10, 20, or 40 mg/kg was administered intravenously 60 min before (pretreatment) LPS challenge, and ALA 40 mg/kg was administered intravenously 30 min after (posttreatment) LPS challenge. Pretreatment and posttreatment with ALA significantly improved the deleterious hemodynamic changes 8 h after LPS challenge, including hypotension and bradycardia. Alpha-lipoic acid reduced the plasma levels of glutamic pyruvic transaminase, blood urea nitrogen, lactate dehydrogenase, tumor necrosis factor-α, nitric oxide metabolites, and thrombin-antithrombin complex, which increased markedly after LPS challenge. The induction of inducible nitric oxide synthase both in the liver and the lung and vascular superoxide anion production were also significantly suppressed by ALA. Moreover, ALA significantly attenuated LPS-induced caspase-3 activation in cardiomyocytes and improved survival rate. In conclusion, ALA effectively attenuated LPS-induced acute inflammatory response and improved MODS. The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of ALA may contribute to these beneficial effects. Alpha-lipoic acid might be considered as a novel therapeutic strategy in the prevention of sepsis-induced MODS and inflammatory vascular diseases.

Long-term treatment with RAL can reduce the severity of MI-induced arrhythmias and attenuate MI/R-induced damages and apoptosis in Ovx rats. This cardioprotective effect of RAL may be associated with inhibition of neutrophil infiltration and suppression of nuclear factor-kappaB activation.