Prospective Paired Study on the Effectiveness of MitoGrade

Chromosomal abnormalities are a major cause of pregnancy loss. Preimplantation Genetic Screening (PGS) using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) allows the effective detection of these abnormalities and improves clinical outcomes. However even the transfer of a chromosomally normal embryo does not guarantee successful implantation. Recent research by Fragouli, et. al. 2015 has demonstrated a strong association between mitochondrial DNA quantities (also known as MitoGradeTM) and implantation outcomes in embryos that are already classified by PGS as chromosomally normal. Investigators have also demonstrated in a clinical study that MitoGradeTM normal and PGS normal embryos have higher chances of implantation than MitoGrade elevated PGS normal embryos. Transferring MitoGrade elevated PGS normal embryos results in less than 10% implantation rates while MitoGrade normal PGS normal embryos resulted in more than 65% implantation rates. The risk of miscarriage after replacing either type is very low (about 8%). In order to understand the complete effectiveness of the test, investigators are conducting a paired prospective study. This means that investigators will be transferring a MitoGrade normal and a MitoGrade elevated embryo at the same time to see if one implants better than the other. It is expected that patients joining this study will benefit from knowing that at least one embryo is MitoGrade normal PGS normal.