Follicular and serum levels of vitamin D in women with unexplained infertility and their relationship with fertilization outcome: an observational pilot study.

<bold>Introduction: </bold>Follicular and serum vitamin D are considered potential markers of the oocyte and embryos' quality and predictors of in vitro fertilization (IVF) outcomes.<bold>Methods: </bold>This retrospective cross-sectional study correlated vitamin D in sera and follicular fluid of women with unexplained infertility mutually and with IVF outcomes. ELISA was used for measuring vitamin D.<bold>Results: </bold>The results show positive correlation only between follicular and serum levels of vitamin D (Rho = 0.615, p = 0.025), and between follicular levels of vitamin D and the percentage of embryo fragmentation (Rho = 0.544; p = 0.036).<bold>Conclusions: </bold>The results suggest that serum and follicular fluid vitamin D measurements could be complementary tools to the routine assessment of embryos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]