Summary
Low-dose aspirin has been suggested to positively impact a number of clinical outcomes associated with oxidative stress; however, results of clinical trials surrounding its effect on a woman’s ability to achieve and sustain pregnancy have been inconclusive. A meta-analysis is an advantageous tool in this situation. Meta-analyses allow researchers to formally and systematically pool together all relevant research in order to clarify findings and form conclusions based on all currently available information. The purpose of this chapter is to describe how to perform a meta-analysis, clarify the impact of model selection, and provide examples of implementation.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Berger JS, Brown DL, Becker RC (2008) Low-dose aspirin in patients with stable cardiovascular disease: A meta-analysis. Am J Med 121:43–49
James AH, Brancazio LR, Price T (2008) Aspirin and reproductive outcomes. Obstet Gynecol Surv 63(1):49–57
Bordes A, Bied Dmaon VA, Hadj S, Nicollet B, Chomier M, Salle B (2003) Does aspirin improve IVF results? Hum Reprod 18(Suppl 1):119
Lentini GM, Falcone P, Guidetti R, Mencaglia L (2003) Effects of low-dose aspirin on oocyte quality, fertilization rate, implantation and pregnancy rates in unselected patients undergoing IVF. Hum Reprod 18(Suppl 1):40
Pakkila M, Rasanen J, Heinonen S, Tinkanen H, Tuomivaara L, Makikallio K et al (2005) Low-dose aspirin does not improve ovarian responsiveness or pregnancy rate in IVF and ICSI patients: a randomized, placebo-controlled double-blind study. Hum Reprod 20:2211–2214
Rubinstein M, Marazzi A, Polak de Fried E (1999) Low-dose aspirin treatment improves ovarian responsiveness, uterine and ovarian blood flow velocity, implantation, and pregnancy rates in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization: a prospective, randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled assay. Fertil Steril 71:825–829
Wada I, Hsu CC, Williams G, Macnamee MC, Brinsden PR (1994) The benefits of low-dose aspirin therapy in women with impaired uterine perfusion during assisted conception. Hum Reprod 9:1954–1957
Lok IH, Yip S, Cheung LP (2004) Adjuvant low-dose aspirin therapy in poor responders undergoing in vitro fertilization: a prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Fertil Steril 81:556–561
Van Dooren IM, Schoot BC, Dargel E, Maas P (2004) Low-dose aspirin demonstrates no positive effect on clinical results in the first in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycle. Fertil Steril 82(Suppl 2):18
Waldenstrom U, Hellberg D, Nilsson S (2006) Low-dose aspirin in a short regimen as standard treatment in in vitro fertilization: a randomized, prospective study. Fertil Steril 81:1560–1564
Petitti DB (1994) Meta-analysis decision analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis. Methods for quantitative synthesis in medicine. Oxford University Press, New York
The Cochrane Collaboration (2002) Collecting data from relevant studies. The Cochrane Collaboration Open Learning Material. http://www.cochrane-net.org/openlearning/HTML/mod7-2.htm. Accessed 13 June 2008
Radhakrishna S (1965) Combination of results from several 2 × 2 contingency tables. Biometrics 21:86–98
Mantel N, Haenszel W (1959) Statistical aspects of the analysis of data from retrospective studies of disease. J Natl Cancer Inst 22:719–748
DerSimonian R, Laird N (1986) Meta-analysis in clinical trials. Control Clin Trials 7:177–188
Peto R (1987) Why do we need systematic overviews of randomized trials? Stat Med 6:233–240
The Cochrane Collaboration (2002) Combining studies. The Cochrane Collaboration Open Learning Material. http://www.cochrane-net.org/openlearning/html/mod12-4.htm. Accessed 13 June 2008
Roupp M, Collins T, Whitcomb BW, Schisterman EF (2008) Evidence of absence or absence of evidence? A re-analysis of the effects of low-dose aspirin in IVF. Fertil Steril 90:71–76
Gelbaya TA, Kyrgiou M, Li TC, Stern C, Nardo LG (2007) Low-dose aspirin for in vitro fertilization: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Hum Reprod Update 13:357–364
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Humana Press, a part of Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Rosenthal, L., Schisterman, E. (2010). Meta-Analysis: Drawing Conclusions When Study Results Vary. In: Armstrong, D. (eds) Advanced Protocols in Oxidative Stress II. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 594. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-411-1_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60761-411-1_30
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
Print ISBN: 978-1-60761-410-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-60761-411-1
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols