Exploration of Immunology

From: Exploring the association between human cytomegalovirus, immunological and biochemical parameters in Iraqi women with polycystic ovary syndrome

Table 4. Multivariate regression findings exploring levels of inflammatory markers.

Predictor variables	Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) [β, 95% confidence interval (CI), p-value]	Interleukin-18 (IL-18) (β, 95% CI, p-value)
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) IgG positivity	0.45 (0.23–0.67, 0.01*)	0.31 (0.12–0.50, 0.02*)
BMI	0.39 (0.21–0.58, < 0.001*)	0.44 (0.28–0.60, < 0.001*)
Homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR)	0.52 (0.34–0.70, < 0.001*)	0.47 (0.30–0.64, < 0.001*)
Age	0.08 (–0.05–0.21, 0.23)	0.06 (–0.07–0.19, 0.31)

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* Statistical significance at p < 0.05 [the model was set for body mass index (BMI) and age].

Declarations

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the staff of the Infertility and IVF Center at Yarmouk Teaching Hospital, Baghdad, for their support during the data collection phase. We also thank all the participants who volunteered for this study.

Author contributions

SOY: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Visualization. MDA: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision. SMA: Investigation, Data curation. IKD: Investigation, Data curation. SM: Formal analysis, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. JS: Formal analysis. All authors read and approved the submitted version.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

The study was reviewed and approved by the Middle Technical University Medical Ethics Committee in Baghdad, Iraq (Ethics Reference Number: 37, approved on October 27, 2025). All procedures were conducted in strict adherence to the WMA Declaration of Helsinki.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all adult participants prior to their inclusion in the study.

Consent to publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Copyright

Publisher’s note

Open Exploration maintains a neutral stance on jurisdictional claims in published institutional affiliations and maps. All opinions expressed in this article are the personal views of the author(s) and do not represent the stance of the editorial team or the publisher.

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