Geburtshilfe Frauenheilkd 2006; 66 - FV_E_02_10
DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-952285

Polar body diagnosis: A highly reliable tool to diagnose age related aneuploidies

M Bloechle 1, S Marr 1, P Guillot 1, M Stumm 2, RD Wegner 2, H Eckel 1
  • 1Kinderwunschzentrum an der Gedächtniskirche, Berlin
  • 2Zentrum für Pränataldiagnostik, Berlin

Introduction: In humans, aneuploidy rates determined in newborns are clearly related to maternal age. Assisted reproductive treatment (ART) now allows to study age related aneuploidy rates of fertilised oocytes by polar body diagnosis (PBD) through fluorescence-in-situ-hybridisation (FISH).

Materials and methods: PBD using the MultiVysion™ PB multicolor probe panel (Abbott) specific for chromosomes 13, 16, 18, 21 and 22 was performed on the first and second polar bodies of 760 fertilised oocytes from 209 ART cycles. The study population included 172 women with an average age of 36.8 years (±4.6; range of 20.9–46.7 years) who underwent ART at the Fertility Center at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin from January, 2005 to February, 2006. Indications for PBD were previous unsuccessful ART cycles and/or advanced maternal age. Fisher’s test was employed for statistical comparisons (p<0.05).

Results: Within an age group of women below 35 years 97 out of 275 (35.3%) fertilised oocytes revealed an abnormal PBD result (n=60 ART cycles). Additionally, 345 oocytes from patients with an age between 35 and 40 years (n=100 ART cycles) were tested by PBD and 165 (47.8%) were identified as aneuploid. In a third age group of patients 40 years and older PBD identified 68 of 140 (48.6%) fertilised oocytes as abnormal (n=49 IVF/ICSI cycles). In comparison to the age group<35 years the aneuploidy rate in the two older age groups was significantly higher.

Conclusion: Applying FISH analyses of polar bodies aneuploid oocytes can be identified and excluded from ART procedures within the time frame set by the German legislative regulations. Our results indicate that PBD by FISH is a reliable diagnostic tool to identify age related aneuplodies in fertilised oocytes and should be offered to women of advanced age undergoing ART cycles.

In contrast to other studies our study presents PBD results of a remarkable high number of fertilised oocytes (n = 760), a condition precedent to the evaluation of age related aneuploidy rates in female gametes.