Abstract

Background

Increasing studies focused on the efficacy of acupuncture on pregnancy outcomes in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) undergoing in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET). However, debatable conclusions have been drawn from different randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which might be related to different doses of acupuncture.

Objective

To evaluate whether acupuncture has a dose-dependent effect on pregnancy outcomes in patients with PCOS undergoing IVF-ET in systematically reviewing.

Methods

Seven electronic databases were searched from inception to October 10th, 2024. The Cochrane Collaboration’s tool ROB 2.0 (ROB 2.0) provided an assessment for the risk of bias. The acupuncture dose was extracted, then categorized into high, medium, and low dose according to the scoring system results, the evidence was assessed by Slavin’s qualitative best-evidence synthesis approach in a rigours methodological way. Clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) was regarded as the primary outcome.

Results

A total of 953 subjects met the eligibility criteria in 12 RCTs were included, among which two studies were low dose, four were medium dose, and six were high dose. The overall quality of included studies was low, 50.00% (6/12) studies were low risk, 16.67% (2/12) studies were some concerns, and 33.33% (4/12) studies were high risk. Comparing the results, the consistent high-dose result among high-quality trials provides strong evidence for a positive correlation between high-dose acupuncture and pregnancy outcomes.

Conclusion

A trend indicates that higher acupuncture doses yield better outcomes for PCOS patients undergoing IVF-ET. Further confirmation through direct comparisons of different doses was needed.

Trial registration

The systematic review has been registered on PROSPERO (https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/), and the registration number is CRD42023400187.

Details

Title
Correlation between acupuncture dose and pregnancy outcomes in women with polycystic ovary syndrome undergoing in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer: a systematic review
Author
Li, Yi Ting; Chao Liang Li; Yang, Han; Huang, Lei; Jia Jia Liu; Xiao Yan Zheng; Xin Yue Tao; Zheng, Yu; Fan Rong Liang; Tian, Xiao Ping; Yang, Jie
Pages
1-11
Section
Systematic Review
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
BioMed Central
e-ISSN
26627671
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3142291719
Copyright
© 2024. This work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.