Detecting Human Embryo Cleavage Stages Using YOLO V5 Object Detection Algorithm

Abstract

Assisted reproductive technology (ART) refers to treatments of infertility which include the handling of eggs, sperm and embryos. The success of ART procedures depends on several factors, including the quality of the embryo transferred to the woman. The assessment of embryos is mostly based on the morphokinetic parameters of their development, which include the number of cells at a given time point indicating the cell stage and the duration of each cell stage. In many clinics, time-lapse imaging systems are used for continuous visual inspection of the embryo development. However, the analysis of time-lapse data still requires the evaluation, by embryologists, of the morphokinetic parameters and cleavage patterns, making the assessment subjective. Recently the application of object detection in the field of medical imaging enabled the accurate detection of lesion or object of interest. Motivated by this research direction, we proposed a methodology to detect and track cells present inside embryos in time-lapse image series. The methodology employed an object detection technique called YOLO v5 and annotated the start of observed cell stages based on the cell count. Our approach could identify cell division to detect cell cleavage or start of next cell stage accurately up to the 5-cell stage. The methodology also highlighted instances of embryos development with abnormal cell cleavage patterns. On an average the methodology used 8 s to annotate a video frame (20 frames per second), which will not pose any delay for the embryologists while assessing embryo quality. The results were validated by embryologists, and they considered the methodology as a useful tool for their clinical practice.