The Application of Time-lapse System in IVF/ICSI: Can it be Beneficial to Final Pregnancy Outcome?

Nowadays, the rapid development of human assisted reproductive technology (ART) has provided many help for couples with fertility issues. Even take baby home rate has been increased dramatically in the past several decades; both clinicians and embryologists are still struggling to improve pregnancy rates. Among all the strategies that the embryologists have tried, much work has been done to find better embryo culture conditions and embryo quality evaluation system. Currently, most centers in the world, including ours, are still using conventional incubators and manual embryo scoring system. This traditional method has several limitations, such as unstable environment during culture, and embryo scores can be different judged by different embryologists. EmbryoScope® by Vitrolife is a newly developed time-lapse embryo culture and analysis system. It is user-friendly, and suited for routinely daily use. In addition, its KID Score system can help embryologist select high quality embryos quickly, which leads to an overall increase in pregnancy outcome in IVF/ICSI cycles. The aim of this prospective cohort study is to evaluate the use of EmbryoScope® in our center.