Adipose tissue percentage and assisted conception outcomes

  • Research type

    Research Study

  • Full title

    The effect of adipose tissue percentage on assisted conception treatment outcomes (AdiCent Study)

  • IRAS ID

    132006

  • Contact name

    Carolyn Croucher

  • Contact email

    carolyn.croucher@esth.nhs.uk

  • Sponsor organisation

    Epsom & St Heliers University Hospitals NHS

  • Research summary

    Our study aims to investigate if there is an association between percentage of fat in the body and outcomes following assisted conception treatment (IVF). The reason behind this is the fact that although it is well established in the medical literature that high body mass index (BMI) is associated with reduced clinical pregnancy rates following IVF treatment, BMI does not correlate well with adiposity according to recent data. In other words although we assume that high BMI suggests high amount of fat tissue in the body this assumption is not always correct and hence a more reliable measure is needed (ie adipose tissue percentage).

    The population of the study will include women undergoing IVF treatment at St Helier Hospital and will include all women eligible for IVF treatment as per local guidelines who consent to participation. The study will be prospective and will include the use of the “In Body 720 Composition Analysis” machine by Derwent Healthcare Ltd. By using this machine we will obtain the adipose tissue percentage for women undergoing IVF treatment and correlate this with the outcome (clinical pregnancy rate). Measuring adipose tissue percentage using this machine has been externally validated and the machine is CE certified. The data will be collected by Dr Ioannis Douliotis and analysed by Dr Rosemarie Mc Niece (Senior Lecturer in Statistics Kingston University).

  • REC name

    North East - Tyne & Wear South Research Ethics Committee

  • REC reference

    13/NE/0257

  • Date of REC Opinion

    20 Aug 2013

  • REC opinion

    Favourable Opinion