Age-specific values of Access anti-Müllerian hormone immunoassay carried out on Japanese patients with infertility: a retrospective large-scale study

Abstract

Background The ovarian reserve in women is known to correlate with anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) levels, and currently the latest, third-generation, fully-automated AMH immunoassays, such as Access and Cobas, are beginning to be used for measuring AMH levels. However, the age-specific reference values obtained for AMH levels have been based on samples from an American population, measured using first-generation immunoassays. In this study, we attempted to determine the age-specific AMH reference values based on a large set of samples taken from Japanese infertile women measured by Access so that they could be used by infertility centers treating Japanese and those with similar racial and life-style characteristics. Methods The study included 5483 Japanese patients who enrolled in infertility treatment programs at two in-vitro fertilization centers, Shimbashi YUME Clinic and Natural ART Clinic Nihombashi in Tokyo, and who had their serum AMH levels measured between December 2015 and November 2017 by Access. Each patient was represented only once in the study. The mean, median, and standard deviation values were obtained from the measured values for single-year intervals from 28 through 48 years of age (21 age groups in total). The 3D-fitted curve of age-specific mean and median values measured by Access was obtained by regression analysis. Results The mean and median values decreased with advancing age (mean: R 2 = 0.9864; median: R 2 = 0.9926). In all age groups, the mean values were higher than the median values; however, the differences between these values decreased with increasing age. Conclusions The age-specific AMH reference values measured by Access in this study may serve as a useful diagnostic marker in infertility centers, especially those treating Japanese patients or patients with similar characteristics.

Ethnic and Sociocultural Differences in Ovarian Reserve: Age-Specific Anti-Müllerian Hormone Values and Antral Follicle Count for Women of the Arabian Peninsula

“…Considering the possible variations due to the different assays used [serum AMH concentrations seem to be 20% lower when Elecsys is compared with conventional AMH Gen II assays (41)], AMH values for Chinese ethnicity seem clearly higher than for the Arab population. Compared to Japanese population, the median AMH values presented in this study are 38.4% lower using Access assay (14). This percentage is far from the 10% expected due to the different assays used (42).…”

“…AMH ranges over the life span of a women were published by Kelsey et al (11) by combining data from 20 studies (3260 data points). Likewise, most studies have evaluated the ovarian reserve parameters in Caucasian populations and only few publications have considered other ethnicities (12)(13)(14). However, it has been shown that AMH and AFC varies across different age-matched ethnic populations (14)(15)(16).…”

“…Likewise, most studies have evaluated the ovarian reserve parameters in Caucasian populations and only few publications have considered other ethnicities (12)(13)(14). However, it has been shown that AMH and AFC varies across different age-matched ethnic populations (14)(15)(16). Studies comparing patients from Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region with Caucasian patients described a reduced ovarian reserve and lower number of retrieved oocytes for the MENA population (17,18).…”

Anti-mullerian hormone levels in indian women seeking infertility treatment: Are Indian women facing early ovarian senescence?

“…Many other studies have reported an inverse correlation between age and AMH levels. [ 15 16 17 18 ] Interestingly, the decrease in median AMH with age observed in Groups A and B was faster as compared to Group C. This indicates that Indian women, whether seeking infertility treatment or with history of natural conception, experience a faster decline in AMH as compared to their healthy Caucasian counterparts. This trend was observed starting at a young age and continues consistently throughout the studied age groups.…”

Age-specific definition of low anti-Mullerian hormone and associated pregnancy outcome in women undergoing IVF treatment

“…However, it is helpful to minimize the mixed effect of age on the association between low AMH level and pregnancy outcome following IVR treatment. In addition, the third-generation automated AMH assay was employed for the measures in the present study [ 26 ]. Several studies show that the automated AMH assay is more sensitive than the Gen-II ELISA kit [ 27 ].…”