Successful glucocorticoid treatment for patients with abnormal autoimmunity on in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer

Purpose: To analyze the effects of glucocorticoid treatment for patients with abnormal autoimmunity on IVF-ET outcomes, low-dose predonisolone or dexamethasone was administered in 51 IVF-ET cycles of 41 patients with positive antinuclear antibody (ANA) anti-DNA antibody, and/or lupus anticoagulant (LAC). Rates of clinical pregnancy and implantation in these patients were compared with those in 48 cycles without corticosteroid therapy Autoantibody-negative patients were also treated with IVF-ET combined with (29 cycles) or without (57 cycles) glucocorticoid administration, and the pregnancy and implantation rates were investigated. Results: without glucocorticoid treatment, the pregnancy rare per cycle and implantation rate per embryo in antibody-positive patients were 10.4 and 3.8%, respectively. Significant increases in pregnancy (35.3%) and implantation (13.2%) rates were observed with corticosteroid treatment. In antibody-negative patients, the rates of pregnancy and implantation shelved no significant differences with versus without the glucocorticoid administration. Conclusions: Our results indicate that because autoimmune abnormalities may be at least one cause of implantation failure following IVF-ET the combined use of low-dose corticosteroid can be effective for autoantibody-positive women.