A case report supporting the concept that some women have a predisposition for maternal meiosis errors resulting in digyny.

PURPOSE: To determine if a primary aborter with recurrent miscarriage times three with her only two fetal products that were evaluated with chromosome analysis demonstrating triploidy in both fetuses could have a predisposition for maternal meiosis errors.

METHODS

In vitro fertilization with intracytoplasmic sperm injection was performed. Embryo biopsy was performed on 3-day old embryos and a single blastomere was evaluated by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). Embryo transfer would be performed on day 5 at the blastocyst stage.

RESULTS

There were six normal and seven abnormal embryos. One of the seven was a tetraploid embryo (92XXXX).

CONCLUSIONS

The majority of triploidies are related to polyspermy but this factor was excluded by performing ICSI. Thus this woman showed a marked predisposition to digyny. Though the tetraploidy could be explained by fertilization of a digynic egg by a diploid sperm the probability was that in this instance the meiosis error extended back to failure to extrude the first polar body.