Association of antinuclear antibody with clinical outcome of patients undergoing in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection treatment: A meta-analysis.

Problem: Several recent studies have investigated the relationship between antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) and in vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) outcomes. This meta-analysis evaluated the effect of ANA on clinical outcome for patients undergoing IVF/ICSI treatment. Method of study: A systemic survey of the literature was performed using PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Library databases, through January 2019. Evaluated outcomes included clinical pregnancy rate (CPR), miscarriage rate (MR) and implantation rate (IR). Relative risk ratio (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were used for dichotomous data. Meta-analyses were performed with Review Manager 5.3 software.

Results: Eleven eligible studies were found. For IVF/ICSI cycles, compared with an ANA(-) group, infertile patients with ANA(+) had significantly reduced incidence of CPR (RR 0.66, 95% CI 0.56-0.79; I2  = 60%) and IR (RR 0.61, 95% CI 0.49-0.76; I2  = 75%), and had a higher MR (RR 1.81, 95% CI 1.40-2.36; I2  = 48%).

Conclusion: This study suggested that ANA might cause poor pregnancy outcomes for infertile women undergoing IVF/ICSI treatment.