Machine Learning Approach to Predict Clinical Pregnancy Potential in Women Undergoing IVF Program

Abstract

Objective: Hidden knowledge could be discovered within a large practical data of in vitro fertilization (IVF) practice. In this study, Machine learning-based data mining techniques were utilized to construct a reliable prediction model for clinical pregnancy in IVF. Study Design: A retrospective cohort multicenter study involving 4.570 IVF cycles. All patients underwent fresh embryo transfer at either the cleavage or blastocyst stage between January 2015 and December 2019. The experiment focused on utilizing tree-based classifiers to generate and compare the most effective prediction model that could predict a clinical pregnancy through clinical data. Additionally, each classifier is optimized via a genetic algorithm technique, along with the selection of variables. Results: Both the decision tree and random forest showed similar performance that was much better than the gradient boost. The two superior classifiers achieved a balanced accuracy of roughly 0.62. Additionally, each prediction model was shown to work optimally with different combinations of variables, with some variables being consistently included, such as female age, and some consistently excluded, which provides an insight into the relationship between the variables and each prediction model. Conclusion: Machine learning algorithm remains effective for the purpose of data mining and knowledge extraction in IVF clinical datasets through which a relatively reliable prediction system for clinical pregnancy could be constructed, provided the available data is sufficient.

Editorial: Molecular and cellular mechanisms in preimplantation IVF-embryo development

“…Shao-Chen Sun, Nanjing Agricultural University, China Some efforts have focused on using molecular markers from spent media and blastocoel fluid to assess the viability of the preimplantation embryo. Cell-free DNA and the contents of exosomes found in spent embryo culture media have all been studied to try and understand their specific origin from within the preimplantation embryo, and then attempting to clarify what these molecules tell us about the developing embryo (reviewed by Handayani et al, 2023;Saadeldin et al, 2023). The origin of cell-free DNA in the spent media and blastocoel fluid is thought to be from aneuploid cells that underwent apoptosis, yet there has been extensive research to use this cell-free DNA (non-invasive PGT-A) to assess embryo ploidy status that has yielded mixed results (reviewed by García-Pascual et al, 2023;Cinnioglu et al, 2023).…”