121 Methodology A. Data Acquisition In this study, US acquisitions on 11 healthy volunteers (age: 31.2 ± 5.2 years; body mass index (BMI): 22.6 ± 2.3 kg/m2 ) were performed at the Catharina Hospital Eindhoven (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) [18]. These healthy volunteers underwent two subsequent 4-min TVUS B-mode scans using a Samsung-Medison WS80A scanner equipped with a V5-9 transvaginal probe during Menses, LF, EL, and LL phases. In addition, US acquisitions in women undergoing IVF were collected from two studies. From the IMPLANT 1 study [19], aiming at testing inhibitors of the uterine activity, US recordings in 65 control patients (age: 31.4 ± 3.1 years; BMI: 23.4 ± 4.1 kg/m2 ) receiving placebo were collected. These patients underwent fresh day-3 ET with one or two embryos, one of which being of good quality according to the Istanbul conference Alpha criteria [20]. They had history of no more than one failed IVF cycle and used a gonadotropinreleasing hormone (GnRH) antagonist protocol with a single injection of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) for triggering ovulation. Being part of the control (placebo) group, the uterine activity was influenced by injected hormones only. For all patients, 4-min B-mode TVUS recordings were acquired 4 h before ET. Being a multi-centre study, various brands of ultrasound scanners and probes were used. More details on the patient enrolment and IVF protocol can be found in [19]. At Ghent University Hospital, 4-min B-mode TVUS recordings were acquired 1 h before ET in 16 patients (age: 32.1 ± 4.7 years; BMI: 25.9 ± 4.7 kg/m2 ) undergoing day 5 ET with the single ET based on the Istanbul conference definition [20]. The enrolled patients received GnRH for follicle stimulation and HCG injection 34–36 h before oocytes retrieval. The 4-min B-mode TVUS recordings were acquired 1 h before ET using Samsung-Medison WS80A scanner equipped with a V5-9 transvaginal probe. More details can be found in [21]. The IMPLANT 1 study was retrospective, while the Catharina Hospital and Ghent University Hospital studies were prospective, with the sonographers being properly instructed on the imaging requirements for this study.
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