Objective: To investigate whether endometrial thickness (EMT) is associated with adverse obstetric and neonatal outcomes in fresh in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection-embryo transfer (IVF/ICSI-ET) cycles. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: University-based reproductive medical center. Patient(s): Women under the age of 42 years who underwent IVF/ICSI treatment and received fresh ET in our unit from January 2017 to December 2018, resulting in a live singleton birth. Intervention(s): Controlled ovarian hyperstimulation and IVF/ICSI; fresh ET. Main Outcome Measure(s): Birth weight, gestational age, small for gestational age (SGA), large for gestational age (LGA), placenta previa, placental abruption, hypertensive disorders, and gestational diabetes mellitus. Result(s): The risk of being born SGA was statistically significantly increased in the EMT %7.5 mm group compared with those from the EMT >12 mm group (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.391; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.155-4.950). Moreover, maternal body mass index, secondary infertility, preterm delivery, and hypertensive disorders were all independent predictors for SGA. The mean birth weights of singletons in women with EMT %7.5 mm were lower than in the groups with EMT >7.5-12 mm and EMT >12 mm (3.25 AE 0.56 kg vs. 3.38 AE 0.51 kg and 3.39 AE 0.53 kg, respectively). Conclusion(s):After fresh IVF/ICSI-ET, the risk of SGA was increased twofold in women with EMT %7.5 mm compared with women with EMT >12 mm. We suggest that women with a thin EMT after obtaining a pregnancy by IVF should receive improved prenatal care to reduce the risk of delivering a SGA infant. (Fertil Steril Ò 2020;113:745-52. Ó2019 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.) El resumen está disponible en Español al final del artículo.

Our results suggest that type 3 fibroids exert a negative impact on the rates of implantation, clinical pregnancy, and live birth in patients undergoing IVF-ICSI, but do not significantly increase the clinical miscarriage rate. The deleterious impact of type 3 fibroids was remarkable in women with type 3 fibroids with TD or SD >2.0 cm.

Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) has been regarded as a protective bioactive polyphenol in green tea against nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), but the mechanism remains poorly deciphered. Herein, we assessed the role and mechanism of EGCG on gut microbiota and the metabolism in NASH development. Forty-eight male C57BL/6J mice were fed with either a methionine–choline-sufficient diet or a methionine–choline-deficient (MCD) diet with or without EGCG administration for 4 weeks. Liver injury, inflammation, lipid accumulation, and iron overload were examined. 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing was used to detect the fecal microbiome. In our research, we observed that EGCG notably improved MCD-diet-derived gut microbiota dysbiosis, as proved by a distinctively clustered separation from that of the MCD group and by the decrease of the Oxalobacter , Oscillibacter , Coprococcus_1, and Desulfovibrio genera and enrichment of norank_f__Bacteroidales_S24_7_group , Alloprevotella , and Bacteroides . Spearman-correlation heatmap analysis indicated that Bacteroides and Alloprevotella induced by EGCG were strongly negatively correlated with lipid accumulation. Functional enzymes of the gut microbiome were predicted by PICRUSt based on the operation classification unit. The results revealed that 1468 enzymes were involved in various metabolic pathways, and 371 enzymes showed distinct changes between untreated and EGCG-treated mice. Long-chain-fatty-acid-CoA ligase ACSBG played a distinct role in fatty acid metabolism and ferroptosis and was significantly negatively correlated with Bacteroides . Altogether, the salutary effect of EGCG on NASH might be via shifting gut flora and certain enzymes from genera. Our study thus takes a step toward NASH prevention and therapy.

Study Objective: To investigate pregnancy and obstetric outcomes of patients with intrauterine adhesions (IUAs) after treatment with in vitro fertilization−intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF-ICSI) and fresh embryo transplantation after transcervical resection of adhesions (TCRA). Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: University-based reproductive medical center. Patients: A total of 535 patients with IUAs and with a history of TCRA and 1605 matched patients without a history of IUAs underwent IVF-ICSI and received fresh embryo transfers. Interventions: Between January 2014 and December 2018, all patients underwent IVF-ICSI treatment and received fresh embryo transfers. Measurements and Main Results: The patients in the TCRA group were matched with the control group according to strict criteria. Pregnancy and obstetric outcomes were compared. There were no significant differences in clinical pregnancies, ectopic pregnancies, live births, preterm births, and obstetric outcomes between the 2 groups (p >.05). However, the TCRA group had a higher risk of miscarriage than the control group (p = .048). Conclusion: TCRA improved the reproductive outcomes of patients with IUAs, but the risk of miscarriage was higher than that in the general population. To avoid miscarriage, careful monitoring is critical for pregnant patients with a history of TCRA who undergo embryo transfers during IVF treatment.

Aim: To study whether infertile patients with endometriosis have a higher prevalence of endometrial polyps, and to clarify the characteristics of the pathology of combined polyps. Methods: Infertile patients who had undergone both hysteroscopy and laparoscopy in Reproductive Hospital Affiliated with Shandong University from January 2014 to May 2017 were enrolled. Patients with and without endometriosis, diagnosed by laparoscopy, were staged and included in the study group and control group, respectively, and the prevalence of polyps was compared. The pathological types of endometrial polyps were analyzed. Results: A total of 414 cases were enrolled in the study group and 3,048 cases in the control group; polyps were diagnosed, with endoscopy, in 1,107 patients. Endometrial polyps were detected by hysteroscopy in 47.83% of the endometriosis group and 29.82% of the control group. The prevalence of endometrial polyps was significantly higher in the endometriosis group than in the control group (p < 0.001) but not significantly different between stages of endometriosis (p = 0.580). The pathological diagnosis included 899 endometrial polyps and 208 polypoid hyperplasia; 66.5% of endometrial polyps were combined with simple hyperplasia. Conclusions: The infertile patients with endometriosis had a higher prevalence of endometrial polyps, and those polyps are often combined with simple hyperplasia.

Objectives: This meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the effects of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in the treatment of primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS).Methods: Nine databases were searched for data collection. We used clinical features, including involvement in superficial tissues and visceral systems, and experimental findings, including Schirmer’s test, unstimulated salivary flow rate (uSFR), C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and immunoglobulins (IgG, IgM and IgA) as major outcome measures. The Downs and Black quality assessment tool and RevMan 5.3 were used to assess the methodological quality and statistical analysis, respectively.Results: Thirteen studies with pSS patients, consisting of two randomized controlled studies, four retrospective studies and seven prospective studies were analyzed. Results showed that HCQ treatment significantly improved the oral symptoms of pSS patients compared to non-HCQ treatment (P = 0.003). Similar trends favoring HCQ treatment were observed for uSFR (p = 0.05), CRP (p = 0.0008), ESR (p &lt; 0.00001), IgM (p = 0.007) and IgA (p = 0.05). However, no significant improvement was observed in other clinical features, including ocular involvement, fatigue, articular lesions, pulmonary, neurological and lymphoproliferative symptoms, renal organs and other experimental parameters in the HCQ treatment group compared to the non-HCQ treatment group.Conclusion: HCQ treatment showed moderate efficacy to improve oral symptoms, uSFR, ESR, CRP, IgM and IgA. However, HCQ could not alleviate organ-specific systemic involvement.Systematic Review Registration:We have registered on the PROSPERO [https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/], and the registration number is identifier [CRD42020205624]

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Background: A thin endometrium affects embryo implantation. We designed a retrospective cohort study to analyze the differences of in vitro fertilization-intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF-ICSI) outcomes between fresh embryo transfer (ET) and frozen ET in patients with a thin endometrium.Methods: The present study comprised of 1,110 patients with a thin endometrium undergoing IVF-ICSI between January 2013 and December 2017 in our unit. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to balance the influence of intergroup confounding factors and to compare the pregnancy outcomes of the matched patients in the two groups. The fresh embryo group and frozen embryo group consisted of 632 and 478 women, respectively. After PSM, 173 patients were included in the two groups, respectively. Results:The frozen embryo group showed a higher live birth rate (31% vs. 18.4%, P<0.001; 30.6% vs. 19.7%, P=0.019), clinical pregnancy rate (40% vs. 26.4%, P<0.001; 38.7% vs. 25.4%, P=0.008), and biochemical pregnancy rate (46.2% vs. 32.9%, P<0.001; 44.5% vs. 31.8%, P=0.020) than the fresh embryo group before and after PSM.Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that for women with a thin endometrium who were undergoing IVF, the live birth rate, clinical pregnancy rate, and biochemical pregnancy rate after frozen ET were significantly higher than in the fresh ET group.