Evaluation of oocyte quality in Polycystic ovary syndrome patients undergoing ART cycles

BACKGROUND: To evaluate factors affecting oocyte/embryo quality in PolyCystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) patients undergoing Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) cycles. METHODS: This case-control retrospective study was performed on PCOS patients referred to the infertility department of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ahvaz from October 2017 to September 2019. Demographic and reproductive characterizations including age, gender, abortion history and infertility type (primary and secondary infertility) were extracted from patient’s records. TSH, AMH, LH, FSH, prolactin, lipid profile and blood glucose was measured. Biochemistry pregnancy was checked by determination of serum βHCG level and then, clinical pregnancy was confirmed by observing of pregnancy sac and fetal heart rate using Transvaginal USS. RESULTS: One-hundred thirty-five patients include 45 PCOS and 90 Non-PCOS patients with mean age of 31.93 ± 5.04 and 30.8 ± 5.38 (p = 0.24) were considered as case and control groups respectively. Retrieved oocyte numbers were significantly higher in PCOS patients (p = 0.024), but there was no significant difference in number of oocyte subtypes (MI, MII and GV) between two groups. The embryo numbers and its subtypes did not differ significantly in both groups. The clinical pregnancy rate was insignificantly lower in PCOS patients (p = 0.066) and there was a significant correlation between retrieved oocyte numbers with age(r= -0.2, p= 0.022) and AMH level (r = 0.433, p < 0.0001) respectively. Cholesterol level had shown a positive significant correlation with number of MI oocytes (r = 0.421, p = 0.026) and MII oocytes significantly affected by age (r= -0.250, p = 0.004) and AMH level (r = 0.480, p < 0.0001). Using Receiver operation characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the cut-off value of total number of oocytes was > 10.5 with area under curve of 0.619±0.054(sensitivity 55.56% and specificity 69.66%) CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study showed that although the number of oocytes in PCOS patients was significantly higher than non-PCOS patients, the quality of oocytes was not statistically different. The number and quality of embryos were not significantly different in both groups. Our results indicated a significant relationship between the level of AMH and the number of retrieved oocytes and embryos. We found there is a significant correlation between cholesterol level and number of MI oocytes.