Effect of Low-Quality Embryo on Adverse Obstetric and Perinatal Outcomes

Abstract

Background: This retrospective study focused on whether low-quality embryos have the risk on perinatal and obstetric outcomes. Methods: This study enrolled 600 women undergoing fresh embryos transfer (ET) cycles between June 2019 and December 2022. The patients were stratified into two groups, high-quality embryo group and low-quality embryo group. In both groups, the perinatal and obstetric outcomes were the primary outcomes. Moreover, we conducted a multi-variable logistic regression analysis, where additional possible confounding factors were controlled, to determine how diverse embryo qualities affected the primary outcomes. Results: The results showed that compared with the low-quality group, the high-quality group showed increased clinical pregnancy (63.33% vs 26.33%) as well as a higher number of live birth rates (52.67% vs 18.33%) (P＜0.001). There were no statistically significant differences in unfavorable perinatal and obstetric outcomes between high- and low-quality groups (p＞0.05). Similarly, the transfer of blastocysts developing from high-quality embryos led to increased clinical pregnancy rates (84.50% vs 48.05%, p<0.001) and live birth rates (74.64% vs 38.96%, p<0.001). Transfer of blastocysts developing from low-quality embryos did not impact the unfavorable perinatal or obstetric outcomes. The logistic regression analysis showed that low-quality could not increase the unfavorable perinatal or obstetric outcomes. Conclusion: In summary, low-quality ET does not increase the risk of unfavorable perinatal or obstetric outcomes. Overall, compared to low-quality embryos, the transfer of high-quality embryos increases the clinical pregnancy and live birth rates.