- Title:
- Measurement of antral follicle count in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization treatment: results of a worldwide web-based survey
- Journal:
- Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics; Volume 32, Issue 10, pp 1435–1440
- Author(s):
- Christianson MS1, Shoham G2, Tobler KJ3, Zhao Y4, Cordeiro CN5, Leong M6, Shoham Z7
- Author(s) affiliation:
- 1 Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
2 Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
3 Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, NC, USA.
4 Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
5 Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
6The Women's Clinic, Hong Kong, SAR, China
7Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot, 76100, Israel
- Short description:
- A worldwide survey of IVF centers demonstrates most utilize antral follicle count as part of their practice but most do not consider it the best predictor of ongoing pregnancy rate.
- Link to the journal
Abstract taken from PubMed
- Background:
- The purpose of the present study was to identify trends in the therapeutic approaches used to measure antral follicle count (AFC) in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment worldwide.
- Methods:
- A retrospective evaluation utilizing the results of a web-based survey, IVF-Worldwide ( www.IVF-Worldwide.com ), was performed.
- Results:
- Responses from 796 centers representing 593,200 cycles were evaluated. The majority of respondents (71.2 %) considered antral follicle count as a mandatory part of their practice with most (69.0 %) measuring AFC in the follicular phase. Most respondents (89.7 %) reported that they would modify the IVF stimulation protocol based on the AFC. There was considerable variation regarding a limit for the number of antral follicles required to initiate an IVF cycle with 46.1 % designating three antral follicles as their limit, 39.9 % selecting either four or five follicles as their limit, and 14.0 % reporting a higher cutoff criteria. With respect to antral follicle size, 61.5 % included follicles ranging between 2 and 10 mm in the AFC. When asked to identify the best predictor of ovarian hyper-response during IVF cycles, AFC was selected most frequently (49.4 %), followed by anti-Mullerian hormone level (42.7 %). Age was selected as the best predictor of ongoing pregnancy rate in 81.7 % of respondents.
- Conclusions:
- While a large proportion of respondents utilized AFC as part of their daily practice and modified IVF protocol based on the measurement, the majority did not consider AFC as the best predictor of ongoing pregnancy rate.
- Link to the paper on PubMed
