Yanhe Liu

• PhD, MCE, MSc, BSc
• Managing Director at Joondalup Health Campus

STUDY QUESTION Compared to the ‘single biopsy + single vitrification’ approach, do ‘double biopsy + double vitrification’ or ‘single biopsy + double vitrification’ arrangements compromise subsequent clinical outcomes following euploidy blastocyst transfer? SUMMARY ANSWER Both ‘double biopsy + double vitrification’ and ‘single biopsy + double vitri...

STUDY QUESTION Do embryos displaying abnormal cleavage (ABNCL) up to Day 3 have compromised live birth rates and neonatal outcomes if full blastulation has been achieved prior to transfer? SUMMARY ANSWER ABNCL is associated with reduced full blastulation rates but does not impact live birth rates and neonatal outcomes once full blastulation has be...

Background and Aims: Spontaneous collapsing (SC) is a relatively new viability biomarker of human blastocysts which is only detectable via time-lapse videography. However, the prognosis of affected blastocysts remains poorly understood, with systematic review and meta-analysis absent from literature. This study is the first to comprehensively evalu...

Background and Aims: The recent clinical application of time-lapse videography has enabled detection of abnormal cleavage (ABNC) in in vitro cultured human embryos and the quantification of their developmental speed. However, growing evidence has highlighted the inter-laboratory transferability issue when involving morphokinetics measures for embry...

STUDY QUESTION Does the transfer of single low-grade blastocysts result in acceptable reproductive and perinatal outcomes compared to the transfer of single good-grade blastocysts? SUMMARY ANSWER The transfer of single low-grade blastocysts resulted in a reduced live birth rate of around 30% (14% for very low-grade blastocysts) compared to 44% for...

A dearth of evidence exists on embryos derived from oocytes without two pronuclei (2PN) or 'normal fertilization', i.e. embryos arising from non-pronuclear oocytes (0PN), mono-pronuclear oocytes (1PN) and tri-pronuclear oocytes (3PN). We searched the published literature on non-2PN oocytes and their clinical outcomes using a two-part collection str...

Background: The combination of time-lapse imaging and artificial intelligence (AI) offers novel potential for embryo assessment by allowing a vast quantity of image data to be analysed via machine learning. Most algorithms developed to date have used neural networks which are uninterpretable (“black-box”) and cannot be understood by doctors, embryo...

Background: Low grade blastocyst (LGB) transfer results in varied live birth rates (5-39%). Only limited studies with small sample sizes (n=10-440) exist, due to LGB transfer being less desirable. Definitions of LGB and study designs are heterogenous, further confounding outcome interpretation. Aim: This study aimed to obtain sufficient LGB transfe...

The last decade has seen an explosion of machine learning (ML) applications in healthcare with mixed and sometimes harmful results, despite much promise and associated hype (Heaven, 2020). A significant reason for these reverses is the premature implementation of machine learning algorithms into clinical practice. In this paper we argue the critica...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques are starting to be used in IVF, in particular for selecting which embryos to transfer to the woman. AI has the potential to process complex data sets, to be better at identifying subtle but important patterns, and to be more objective than humans when evaluating embryos. However, a current review of the liter...

AI has the potential to revolutionize many areas of healthcare. Radiology, dermatology, and ophthalmology are some of the areas most likely to be impacted in the near future, and they have received significant attention from the broader research community. But AI techniques are now also starting to be used in in vitro fertilization (IVF), in partic...

Embryo quality is a key determinant of the success of in vitro fertilisation. While the focus has been on selecting the best embryo for transfer, the classification of low-grade blastocysts (LGBs) in existing scoring systems has received less attention. This is worrisome; embryo freezing allows optimal use of all created embryos, thus maximizing th...

PurposeTo investigate the between-laboratory reproducibility of embryo selection/deselection effectiveness using qualitative and quantitative time-lapse parameters.MethodsA systematic search was performed on MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library (up to February 2020) without restriction on date, language, document type, and publication status....

The recent clinical introduction of time-lapse videography into in vitro fertilization laboratories has offered a novel opportunity for embryologists to explore improved methods for embryo selection. While the concept of uninterrupted culture of embryos provided by such systems is welcomed, the current evidence does not support its full application...

This study investigated the efficacy of four published day 3 embryo time-lapse algorithms based on different types of datasets (known implantation data [KID] and single embryo transfer [SET]), and the confounding effect of female age and conventional embryo morphology. Four algorithms were retrospectively applied to three types of datasets generate...

This study evaluated the effect of sperm selection and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) on subsequent fertilization and embryo development using the hyaluronic acid-based SpermSlow™ (HA-ICSI) compared to injection with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP-ICSI). A total of 206 metaphase II oocytes were collected from 21 prospectively enrolled ICSI cycl...

Objective: To present a time-lapse deselection model involving both qualitative and quantitative parameters for assessing embryos on day 3. Design: Retrospective cohort study and prospective validation. Setting: Private IVF center. Patient(s): A total of 270 embryos with known implantation data (KID) after day 3 transfer from 212 IVF/intracy...

A total of 488 Day 3 human embryos with known implantation data from two independent in vitro fertilization laboratories were included for analysis, with 270 from Fertility North (FN) and 218 from Canberra Fertility Centre (CFC). Implanting embryos grew at different rates between FN and CFC as indicated in hours of the time intervals between pronuc...

Objective: To investigate the relationship between elevated serum progesterone levels (EP) on the day of ovulatory trigger, live birth rates, and the growth of resulting embryos. Methods: A total of 836 in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles with 4 478 embryos in conventional culture were retrospectively analyzed, together with an additional 90 IVF cy...

To investigate the clinical significance of intercellular contact point (ICCP) in four-cell stage human embryos and the effectiveness of morphology and abnormal cleavage patterns in identifying embryos with low implantation potential. Retrospective cohort study. Private IVF center. A total of 223 consecutive IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection...

Time-lapse videography showed that human early cleavage embryos were quicker following intracytoplasmic sperm injection to reach developmental milestones compared to in vitro fertilization when using insemination as the timing start point (t0), due to differences in the time taken for embryos to reach pronuclear fading (PNF). These differences disa...

A total of 341 fertilized and 37 unfertilized oocytes from 63 intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) treatment cycles were included for retrospective assessment using the Embryoscope™ time-lapse video system. The second polar body (pb2) extrusion occurred at 2.9 ± 0.1 h (range 0.70–10.15 h) relative to sperm injection. All oocytes reduced in size...

Objective To investigate the prevalence and potential causes of reverse cleavage (RC) by human early-cleavage embryos and its associations with embryonic development and implantation after transfer. Design Clinical retrospective cohort study. Setting Private fertility treatment center. Patient(s) A total of 126 consecutive in vitro fertilization...

Objective: To study the performance of thawed zygotes and cleavage stage embryos transferred either on the day of thaw or after overnight culture. Methods: A retrospective study of 864 frozen embryo transfer cycles. Cryosurvival rates per thawed embryo and implantation rates were analysed for embryos frozen on Day 1, Day 2 or Day 3 relative to oocy...

To observe the effect of Erzhi Tiangui recipe (ETR) on quality of oocyte in the process of external fertilization and embryo-transplantation. Eighty mice were randomly divided into 4 groups, Group A treated with ETR plus human menopausal gonadotropin (HMG), Group B with ETR, Group C with HMG and Group D with normal saline. Ovulation test and cleava...