title: An externally validated age-related model of mean follicle density in the cortex of the human ovary.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The ability to accurately estimate a woman's ovarian reserve by non-invasive means is the goal of ovarian reserve prediction. It is not known whether a correlation exists between model-predicted estimates of ovarian reserve and data generated by direct histological analysis of ovarian tissue. The aim of this study was to compare mean non-growing follicle density values obtained from analysis of ovarian cortical tissue samples against ovarian volume models.
  
  
  METHODS
  Non-growing follicle density values were obtained from 13 ovarian cortical biopsies (16-37 years). A mean non-growing follicle density was calculated for each patient by counting all follicles in a given volume of biopsied ovarian cortex. These values were compared to age-matched model generated densities (adjusted to take into consideration the proportion of ovary that is cortex) and the correlation between data sets tested.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Non-growing density values obtained from fresh biopsied ovarian cortical samples closely matched model generated data with low mean difference, tight agreement limits and no proportional error between the observed and predicted results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings validate the use of the adjusted population and ovarian volume models, to accurately predict mean follicle density in the ovarian cortex of healthy adult women.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cell Biology and Centre for Integrative Physiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9XD, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McLaughlin
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Kelsey
authors.forename: W H B
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Wallace
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Telfer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D006080:Ovarian Follicle / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D010053:Ovary / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055815:Young Adult