Association between enteric dysmotility and GnRH antibodies: A meta-analysis

Background and aim: Recent studies reported a significant association between enteric dysmotility and GnRH antibodies, other studies reported no significant association. Therefore, we aimed to perform a meta-analysis to investigate and clarify the exact association between enteric dysmotility and GnRH antibodies. Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were searched. The inclusion criteria were any randomized control trials or observational studies that reported the level or prevalence of GnRH IgM or GnRH IgG antibodies in patients with enteric dysmotility matched with healthy controls. Exclusion criteria: Case reports, case series, reviews, editorials, and animal studies. RevMan software 5.4 was used to perform the meta-analysis. Results: After search of the literature, 4 studies were included in the meta-analysis with a total number of 469 individuals included in the study. The pooled analysis showed a statistically significant association between enteric dysmotility and increased prevalence of GnRH IgM antibodies compared with controls (RR ​= ​4.47, 95% CI ​= ​1.17 to 17.06, p-value ​= ​0.03). Contrarily, no statistically significant association between enteric dysmotility and the levels of IgM antibodies as well as the prevalence of IgG antibodies was found compared with controls, (MD ​= ​0.92, 95% CI ​= ​-1.01 to 2.86, p-value ​= ​0.35) and (RR ​= ​1.84, 95% CI ​= ​0.09 to 35.86, p-value ​= ​0.69), respectively. Conclusion: Our study detected a significant association between intestinal dysmotility and high prevalence of GnRH IgM antibodies when matched with controls. Conversely, we found no statistically significant association between enteric dysmotility and IgG antibodies. Further research is warranted to support our results and clarify the exact association between enteric dysmotility and GnRH antibodies.