Study design and participants
This was a single-center, non-randomized, prospective,
propensity-matched, comparative study registration of female patients
who underwent MVR at the Cardiothoracic Department of Ain Shams
University, Cairo, Egypt, from January 2010 to February 2020. Matched
pairs based on identical or very similar propensity scores were compared
in subsequent analyses. Logistic regression analysis based
on explanatory variables was used for calculating the propensity
score for each subject. Propensity score matching is an estimation
method applied to situations, such as pregnancy, for which randomized
clinical trials are unlikely to be performed.[8]
This study was approved by the local ethics committee and was
conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. All
patients provided written informed consent before the surgical
procedures.