Noninvasive embryo viability assessment by quantitation of human haptoglobin alpha-1 fragment in the in vitro fertilization culture medium: an additional tool to increase success rate  Gergely Montskó, Ph.D., Zita Zrínyi, M.S., Tamás Janáky, D.Sc., Zoltán Szabó, Ph.D., Ákos Várnagy, M.D., Ph.D., Gábor L. Kovács, M.D., D.Sc., József Bódis, M.D., D.Sc.  Fertility and Sterility  Volume 103, Issue 3, Pages 687-693 (March 2015) DOI: 10.1016/j.fertnstert.2014.11.031 Copyright © 2015 American Society for Reproductive Medicine Terms and Conditions

Figure 1 Mass spectrum of the identified haptoglobin fragment. The horizontal (x) axis represents the mass-to-charge (m/z) ratio, whereas the vertical (y) axis denotes the intensity of the respective mass spectrometric peaks. The most intensive peak at m/z 1,149.6 m/z corresponds to the [M+8H]8+ ion of the molecule. The peaks at m/z 1,021.9 and m/z 1,313.7 represent the other two notable multiply charged ions, [M+9H]9+ and [M+7H]7+, of the fragment. Fertility and Sterility 2015 103, 687-693DOI: (10.1016/j.fertnstert.2014.11.031) Copyright © 2015 American Society for Reproductive Medicine Terms and Conditions

Figure 2 Results of the blinded analysis of embryo culture medium after 3 days of incubation (n = 90). The horizontal axis denotes four groups of embryo cultures: biochemically nonviable and no birth (n = 37), biochemically nonviable resulting in live birth (n = 0), biochemically viable and no birth (n = 24), and biochemically viable and live birth (n = 29). The vertical axis indicates the number of embryo samples. Embryos assessed as biochemically viable showed a 54.7% birth rate (29 of 53) within the viable group. Fertility and Sterility 2015 103, 687-693DOI: (10.1016/j.fertnstert.2014.11.031) Copyright © 2015 American Society for Reproductive Medicine Terms and Conditions

Figure 3 Bar chart of the mean amount (expressed as the ion chromatographic peak area) of the haptoglobin α-1 fragment amount in the control (n = 10), viable embryo (n = 53), and nonviable embryo samples (n = 37). A significant difference (#P<.001) was found between the nonviable embryo and the other two groups. Fertility and Sterility 2015 103, 687-693DOI: (10.1016/j.fertnstert.2014.11.031) Copyright © 2015 American Society for Reproductive Medicine Terms and Conditions