Diagnostic accuracy of pericardial fluid cytology: an analysis of 53 specimens from 44 consecutive patients

A cohort of 123 infertile couples was studied by life tables over a 30-month follow-up period to determine the influence on reproductive prognosis of clinical features, namely the women's age, previous gestational events, evolution time, and a number of conditioning infertility factors. The cumulative pregnancy rate (CPR) was 60% at 30 months. Women aged 32 years or less had a CPR of 65% and those over 32 years had a CPR of 31%. Couples with previous pregnancy had a CPR of 88%, while those with primary infertility had a CPR of 45% (marginal statistical difference). The group with infertility evolution of 36 months or less had a CPR of 75% and those with greater than 36 months infertility evolution had a CPR of 43% (p < .05). With one conditioning infertility factor a CPR of 75% was found, and with multiple factors a CPR of 47% (p < .05) was found. With these results a grading chart was created using all the analyzed criteria, determining the proportion of pregnancies per number of negative points obtained; at greater grades the proportion of pregnancy was reduced (p < .01). This report establishes the prognostic value of different variables observed in the evaluation of infertile men and women, and a simple procedure to calculate the probability to achieve pregnancy is proposed.