SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Reproduction
This article is part of the Research TopicExploring the Role of Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) in Reproductive MedicineView all articles
Diagnostic Accuracy of Initial Serum β-hCG in Predicting Pregnancy Outcomes Post-SET in IVF/ICSI Cycles: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- Jiangxi Provincial People's Hospital, Nanchang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background Serum beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (β-hCG) is a prominent indicator of early pregnancy and is crucial for monitoring pregnancies post-in vitro fertilization (IVF). This study aimed to critically evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of initial serum β-hCG in predicting clinical pregnancy or live birth outcomes post-SET in IVF/ICSI cycles through a rigorous synthesis of published data. Methods A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and China Biology Medicine disc databases to identify potentially eligible studies published before December 22, 2023. Studies that adhered to the inclusion and exclusion criteria were incorporated into the meta-analysis without any restrictions based on language. The Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2) checklist was utilized to assess the quality of the included studies. Pooled summary estimates, including sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), were calculated. Summary receiver operating characteristic curves (SROC) were constructed, and the area under the curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the prognostic performance of initial serum β-hCG on pregnancy outcomes. Results The quantitative synthesis (meta-analysis) included 12 studies, comprising 10 unique entities examining the use of initial serum β-hCG for predicting clinical pregnancy post-SET in IVF/ICSI cycles and 11 entities investigating the effectiveness of initial serum β-hCG in predicting live birth following SET in the same cycles. Initial serum β-hCG showed reference informative diagnostic performance in predicting clinical pregnancy with a pooled sensitivity and specificity of 0.91 and 0.89, respectively, a DOR of 65.07, and an AUC of 0.95. For live birth prediction, initial serum β-hCG demonstrated a certain degree of diagnostic capability with a pooled sensitivity and specificity of 0.87 and 0.70, a DOR of 15.07, and an AUC of 0.82. Conclusions Our research assessed the diagnostic efficacy of initial serum β-hCG for detecting clinical pregnancy and live birth through a meta-analysis of data from 12 published studies. This study suggested that the initial serum β-hCG levels had a certain predictive value for pregnancy outcomes following SET in IVF/ICSI cycles.
Keywords: Meta-analysis, pregnancy outcomes, SET, Single-embryo transfer, β-hCG
Received: 28 May 2025; Accepted: 12 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Wen, Zhang, Zhu, Ling and Xiong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dandan Xiong
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.