Diagnostic value of oxidation-reduction potential for male infertility: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: In the last few years, studies have initially confirmed the diagnostic significance of oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) in male infertility patients. In this article, we used meta-analysis to clarify the role of ORP in the diagnosis of male infertility. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were searched by computer for relevant published literature. Quality assessment of the included literature was performed by Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS) scale. Heterogeneity analysis of included studies was conducted using Metadisc 1.4 and Stata 12.0, and effective models for quantitative synthesis were selected based on heterogeneity results; the sensitivity and specificity of the synthesis were obtained using the software, and in order to reduce the effects of heterogeneity and thresholds, the information of sensitivity and specificity was integrated. We used the subject receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve, area under the curve (AUC) and Q* index for comprehensive evaluation. Results: Seven papers were eventually included in the study, and the results showed that ORP had a sensitivity of 0.81 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.80-0.82] and specificity of 0.66 (95% CI: 0.63-0.69), an AUC of 0.8 and a Q* index of 0.74 for the diagnosis of male infertility. Conclusions: ORP has high sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing male infertility.