PURPOSE:
To determine whether the antral follicle count can predict the number of retrieved oocytes in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) and to correlate it with maternal age and pregnancy rate.
METHODS:
This was a retrospective observational study based on a review of medical records from 193 patients who underwent assisted reproduction techniques between September 2010 and September 2012 in a Clinic for Human Reproduction. The study included women indicated for IVF who had follicle-stimulating hormone levels below 10 mIU/mL on third day of the menstrual cycle, with oocyte recipients being excluded. The patients were divided into three groups according to the number of antral follicle (up to 10 follicles, 11–22 follicles, and 23 or more follicles). To compare these three groups with the group of patients who became pregnant, patients who had not developed oocytes and had not undergone embryo transfer were also excluded. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to measure the level of association between the numerical variables, and χ2 test was used to compare pregnancy rates with antral follicle count. To assess the likelihood of pregnancy, we used multivariate logistic regression, with the level of significance set at 5%.
RESULTS:
The pregnancy rate of the sample was 35.6%. There was a positive significant correlation (sc) between antral follicle count and number of retrieved oocytes (sc=0.5; p<0.05) and a negative correlation between antral follicle count and age (sc= -0.5; p<0.05). There was no significant difference (p=0.16) when groups with different numbers of follicles were compared to the positive pregnancy test group; however, a cutoff of 27 antral follicles was observed in multivariate analysis, after which the probability of successful gestation tended to remain constant.
CONCLUSIONS:
The antral follicle count decreases over the years, is a predictor of the number of retrieved oocytes and can predict the likelihood of the success of in vitro fertilization.
Ovarian follicle; Fertilization in vitro; Pregnancy; Ultrasonography
