Embryos cultured in a time-lapse system result in superior treatment outcomes; a strict matched pair analysis.

A retrospective, strict matched-pair analysis on 728 treatment cycles between January 2011 and September 2014 was performed. 364 treatment cycles, where all embryos were cultured and examined in EmbryoScope®, were matched to treatment cycles where all embryos were cultured in a standard incubator with conventional morphological examination. Matching was performed for patient age, number of oocytes collected, treatment type and date of oocyte collection (± six months). The clinical (CPR), implantation (IR), live birth (LBR) and miscarriage rates (MR) were calculated and considered significant at p<0.05 (Chi-square test). CPR, IR and LBR were found to be statistically significantly higher in the time-lapse system (TLS) group compared to the standard incubation group (CPR; 44.8% versus 36.5%, p<0.03. IR; 39.3% versus 32.2%, p<0.03. LBR; 43.1% versus 33.8%, p<0.01). Although there was a 5.5% decrease in the MR for the TLS group when compared to the standard incubation group, this result was not statistically significant (18.9% versus 24.4%, p>0.1). There is a paucity of welldesigned studies to confirm that embryos cultured and examined in TLS can result in superior treatment outcomes, and this strict-matched pair analysis with a large cohort of treatment cycles indicates the advantage of using TLS