The evaluative effectiveness of a combined index exceeded that of a single variable for the ovarian reserve and response of infertile women

Abstract

Aim of the present study was to explore the evaluative effectiveness of age, ovarian volume, antral follicle count (AFC), serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), FSH/LH ratio and ovarian response prediction index (ORPI) to determine which could most advantageously assess ovarian reserve and response.Methods This research enrolled 319 consecutive infertile women who had undergone IVF-ET/ICSI treatments. Abovementioned variables were measured and calculated. Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve analysis was used to analyze the predictive accuracy of variables and to calculate cut-off values and corresponding sensitivity and specificity.Results Our study revealed that the significant variables for evaluating a decline in ovarian reserve include age, total volume of bilateral ovary, FSH, and ORPI. Moreover, the area under the curve (AUC) of ORPI was higher than other three variables (AUC = 0.903), and the cut-off value of ORPI was 0.245 (sensitivity 90.1%, specificity 73.9%). The significant variables forecasting excessive ovarian response were age, AFC, AMH, ORPI, FSH and FSH/LH ratio, and the significant variables forecasting low ovarian response were AMH and FSH/LH ratio. ORPI and FSH/LH ratio presented better effectiveness in evaluating ovarian response. When they were used to predict excessive response, the cut-off values of ORPI and FSH/LH ratio was 0.886 (sensitivity 84.7%, specificity 67.3%) and 1.753 (sensitivity 56.2%, specificity 67.6%), respectively. When used to predict low response, the cut-off value of FSH/LH ratio was 2.983 (sensitivity 75.0%, specificity 83.8%).Conclusions ORPI performed better than did the other variables in evaluating ovarian reserve and predicting excessive ovarian response, and the FSH/LH ratio performed better than did the other variables in predicting low ovarian response. Consequently, we agreed that the evaluative effectiveness of a combined index exceeded that of a single variable for evaluating the ovarian reserve and response of infertile women.