BACKGROUND This study examined potential associations between exposure to episodes of air pollution and alterations in semen quality. The air pollution, resulting from combustion of coal for industry and home heating in the Teplice district of the Czech Republic, was much higher during the winter than at other times of year with peaks exceeding US air quality standards. METHODS Young men from...

Ces recommandations communes de l’Association Française d’Urologie (AFU) et la Société d’Andrologie Langue (SALF) ont pour objectif fournir des directives pratiques à communauté urologique andrologique concernant l’évaluation hommes infertiles. Recherche bibliographique dans PubMed en utilisant les mots-clés «male infertility», «diagnosis», «management» «evaluation» limitée aux articles cliniqu...

Appropriate semen processing and assessment are critical for successful infertility treatment. We investigated whether laboratory procedures including semen preparation and incubation affect sperm DNA integrity. A total of 153 infertile men were involved. Conventional semen parameters and sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) parameters, that is, DNA fragmentation index (%DFI) and high DNA sta...

Oxidative stress (OS) plays an essential role in male infertility aetiology by affecting sperm quality, function, and also the integrity of sperm DNA. The assessment of oxidative stress in semen may be an important tool to improve the evaluation of sperm reproductive capacity. The purpose of this study was the evaluation of any possible relation between the unbalance of oxidative stress caused ...

Persistent organochlorine pollutants (POPs) such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE), the major metabolite of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), are stable lipophilic compounds widely found in the environment and in the general population. They can enter the food chain, and their negative impact on male reproduction is currently under active s...

Infertility affects 15% of all couples. Although male infertility factors with reduced semen quality are contributing to about half of all involuntary childlessness, the value of standard semen parameters in prediction of fertility in vivo and choice of proper method for assisted reproduction is limited. In the search for better markers of male fertility, during the last 10 years, assessment of...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have described an association between sperm with DNA damage and a history of recurrent miscarriage (RM), although it is not clear whether there is benefit in screening for sperm DNA fragmentation and to what extent DNA fragmentation impacts upon RM. AIMS To identify what proportion of couples experiencing RM are affected by DNA fragmentation abnormalities. MATERI...

OBJECTIVE To determine DNA damage as measured by the sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) in subsets of human spermatozoa at different stages of maturation in patients who are undergoing infertility evaluation. DESIGN Prospective study. SETTING Andrology laboratory at a tertiary care hospital. PATIENT(S) Fifty-six patients undergoing infertility evaluation. Patients with normal semen pa...