Recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone (r-hFSH) plus recombinant luteinizing hormone versus r-hFSH alone for ovarian stimulation during assisted reproductive technology: systematic review and meta-analysis

Table 2 Results of meta-regression for the effect of subgroup and covariates analyses for number of oocytes and clinical pregnancy

Moderator (covariate)^a	Number of oocytes			Clinical pregnancy
	Difference	95% CI	Pvalue	RR	95% CI	P value
Analysis of patient response subgroups
POR vs. normal responders	1.17	0.42 to 1.92	0.002	1.3	1.05 to 1.62	0.016
Other analyses
Advanced maternal age (>35 years) vs. younger age	−0.66	−1.51 to 0.20	0.132	1.1	0.90 to 1.33	0.378
Typology (NPG class vs. others^b)	1.40	0.35 to 2.46	0.009	1.3	0.98 to 1.75	0.067
Missing data: imputed vs existing data	1.52	−3.68 to 6.73	0.566	1.3	0.76 to 2.23	0.332
Publication year	−0.04	−0.16 to 0.09	0.577	1.0	0.97 to 1.03	0.934
Published vs. unpublished (congress abstracts)	0.87	−0.76 to 2.51	0.296	0.7	0.44 to 1.25	0.262
Published vs. unpublished (full papers)	0.27	−1.22 to 1.75	0.724	0.8	0.48 to 1.30	0.346
Methodological quality score (MQS)	−0.96	−2.44 to 0.52	0.204	0.9	0.68 to 1.30	0.693
Sponsored vs. non-sponsored studies	−0.35	−1.15 to 0.45	0.394	0.9	0.78 to 1.09	0.346
Multicentre vs. single centre	0.36	−0.45 to 1.17	0.386	0.9	0.80 to 1.12	0.517
ART technique (ICSI vs. IVF)	0.21	−0.17 to 0.59	0.281	1.1	0.94 to 1.33	0.212
GnRH antagonist vs. GnRH agonist	−0.12	−1.02 to 0.77	0.787	0.9	0.78 to 1.10	0.364

^aWith the exception of continuous variables, the categories of the meta-regressors were binary, e.g. POR vs. normal responders.
^bOther typology groups: NNG (young/normal age, normal response, GnRH agonist); ANG (advanced maternal age, normal response, GnRH agonist); NNN (young/normal age, normal response, GnRH antagonist); NPN (young/normal age, poor response, GnRH antagonist); APG (advanced maternal age, poor response, GnRH agonist); and ANN (advanced maternal age, normal response, GnRH antagonist).
ART, assisted reproductive technology; CI, confidence interval; GnRH, gonadotrophin-releasing hormone; ICSI, intracytoplasmic sperm injection; IVF, in vitro fertilization; NPG, young/normal age, poor response, GnRH agonist; POR, poor ovarian response; RR, risk ratio.

ISSN: 1477-7827