Table 2.

Biological variability characteristics for group II high density lipoprotein (HDL) particle associated follicular fluid (FF) analytes sampled from ipsilateral follicles in six in vitro fertilization patients

FF analytes	Mean	SD	CV	σ2 T	%σ2 B	%σ2 F	RV	m10%	ICC	95 % CI Low	95 % CI High
Free cholesterol (mg/dL)a	2.10	1.08	51.49	0.045	76.42	23.58	0.31	8	0.76	0.50	1.00
Cholesteryl palmitate (mg/dL)	3.87	1.25	32.15	0.093	54.44	45.56	0.84	9	0.54	0.14	0.95
Cholesteryl oleate (mg/dL)	8.99	1.24	13.74	0.074	79.56	20.44	0.26	2	0.80	0.58	1.00
Cholesteryl linoleate (mg/dL)	14.47	1.22	8.47	0.075	79.84	20.16	0.25	1	0.80	0.59	1.00
Cholesteryl arachidonate (mg/dL)	7.44	1.22	16.38	0.086	86.41	13.59	0.16	2	0.86	0.72	1.00
Retinol (μg/mL)	1.36	1.05	76.79	0.004	81.09	18.91	0.23	3	0.81	0.61	1.00
β-carotene (μg/mL)	1.08	1.06	98.04	0.002	96.28	3.72	0.04	5	0.96	0.92	1.00
β-cryptoxanthin (μg/mL)	1.04	1.02	98.06	0.001	95.26	4.74	0.05	13	0.95	0.90	1.00
α-tocopherol (μg/mL)	4.02	1.21	30.09	0.053	86.27	13.73	0.16	2	0.86	0.71	1.00
γ –tocopherol (μg/mL)	1.20	1.08	89.90	0.011	91.32	8.68	0.10	11	0.91	0.82	1.00
Lutein/zeaxanthin (μg/mL)	1.09	1.04	95.74	0.001	90.04	9.96	0.11	5	0.90	0.79	1.00
Lycopene (μg/mL)	1.06	1.01	95.97	0.001	96.79	3.21	0.03	3	0.97	0.93	1.00

NOTE: Geometric means and standard deviations (SDs) presented. All values were log-transformed for the analyses. Variability due to analytic factors was captured in conjunction with variability between follicles

^a n = 5 due to exclusion of one outlying observation

CI confidence interval, CV coefficient of variation, ICC intraclass correlation coefficient, m _10% minimum number of specimen collections required to estimate the mean within ±10 % of the “true” value, RV % σ² _F: % σ² _B, σ ² _B variability between women, σ ² _F variability between follicles, σ ² _T total variability