Ovarian and Uterine Blood Flow Indices in Patients with Unexplained Infertility Undergoing ICSI and their Relation to Clinical Pregnancy Rate

Background: Infertility is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a disease of the reproductive system defined by the failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse and is estimated to affect as many as 48.5 million couples worldwide. Unexplained infertility (UI) constitutes an important portion of the infertility reasons (up to 30%) and is diagnosed when the causes of male or female infertility remains unknown.
Aim: The aim of the study was to compare ovarian, uterine artery and subendometrial vessels resistance by measuring PI and RI of patients diagnosed as UI undergoing ICSI in the day of embryo transfer and control group diagnosed as fertile by having at least one livebirth in peri-implantation period from day 19 to day 21.
Materials and Methods:The current study is a prospective case control study, which was conducted at the Assisted Reproduction Technology unit of Ain Shams University Maternity Hospital during the period from September 2017 to July 2019. The current study included two groups of patients one group is unexplained infertility attending the Assisted Reproduction Unit and the other is control fertile group each group consists of 51 women.
Results: There was statistically significant difference between the unexplained infertility group and control fertile group as regard Uterine and subendometrial artery PI, RI and ovarian artery RI in which resistance indexes was significantly higher in the UI group than control group. The cut off values of PI, RI between unexplained infertility and fertile group are ≥1.88, ≥0.8 for Uterine artery, and ≥ 0.87, ≥0.53 for subendometrial arteries, and ≥ 0.59 for ovarian artery RI. Among the unexplained infertility undergoing ICSI patients the pregnancy rate is 23.5%. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (pregnant group and non-pregnant group) as regard the age, BMI, duration of infertility or the basal hormonal profile.
Conclusion: Doppler parameters are useful tools to assess endometrial receptivity in unexplained infertility patients undergoing ICSI. This study found that Uterine, Ovarian, subendometrial arteries plasticity index (PI) and resistance index RI measured on the day of embryo transfer higher than fertile women and have value in judging endometrial receptivity and predict the final outcome of IVF/ ICSI- ET. Uterine, ovarian and subendometrial blood flow assessed by measuring PI, RI of these arteries was impaired in unexplained infertility patients compared to fertile women. Also, uterine arteries PI, ovarian and subendometrial arteries PI, RI differ in pregnancy outcome in unexplained infertility patients undergoing ICSI.