Diagnosis of Chronic Endometritis in Endometrial Fluid Using Molecular Techniques to Improve the Outcomes of Assisted Reproductive Treatments

Summary

Chronic endometritis (CE) is a persistent inflammation of the endometrial lining caused by the infection of the uterine cavity mainly by bacterial pathogens. It is known that CE can produce implantation failure, recurrent abortion and preterm labor. The study hypothesis is that patients who have repeated implantation failures (RIF) despite transferring good quality and normal embryos, diagnosed by preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), into a receptive endometrium, diagnosed by Endometrial Receptivity Analysis (ERA), may present asymptomatic CE, being the altered endometrium the main cause of these implantation failures.

The current diagnosis of CE is the microbiological culture of endometrial biopsy samples. Alternatively, examination of the uterine cavity by hysteroscopy is effective at 93.4%. However, both methods have limitations, such as the time needed to obtain the diagnosis, the economic cost of the tests, the possibility of detecting microorganisms in culture etc. For these reasons, the developing of a simple, fast, cheap and minimally invasive diagnostic tool for CE patients subjected to IVF treatments is expected. It would be very useful in order to establish a specific treatment and improve pregnancy rates in infertile patients. For this reason, the bacterial DNA present in the endometrial fluid samples will be obtained and the identification of the causative pathogens of CE will be done by sequencing (NGS) and/or quantitative PCR with specific oligonucleotides for the most common bacteria causing CE. The validation of this new method will be performed by comparison with the microbiological diagnosis of those same patients.

Conditions

• Chronic Endometritis

Interventions

PROCEDURE

Endometrial Biopsy and endometrial fluid collection

On day 5 of the Hormonal Replacement Therapy (after 5 days of progesterone administration), the doctor will perform endometrial fluid aspiration (EF) followed by an endometrial biopsy (EB) the same day of hysteroscopy that is performed as usual clinical practice. EF sample will be analyzed by molecular techniques (Next Generation Sequencing) for the detection of infectious agents and the EB sample will be divided into three parts, one of them will be used for molecular analysis (as control of the bacterial content present in the EF) and the others will be used for microbiological analysis and histological techniques respectively. The Assisted Reproductive Treatment (ART) will be performed once the specialist considers it appropriated according to the clinical standard practice and the reproductive rates will be correlated with the diagnosis of CE comparing the results of ART before and after its diagnosis of CE.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Instituto de Investigacion Sanitaria INCLIVA

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• University of Valencia

  collaborator OTHER

• Igenomix

  lead INDUSTRY

Principal Investigators

• Carlos Simón, MD PhD · Igenomix

• Gemma Arribas, MD PhD · Hospital Clínic Universitari

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

38 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-04-27

Primary Completion

2018-06-26

Completion

2019-02-13

Countries

• Spain

Study Locations