Microdeletions in Yq11 overlapping three distinct 'azoospermia factors' (AZFa-c) represent the aetiological factor of 10-15% of idiopathic azoospermia and severe oligozoospermia, with higher prevalence in more severe testiculopathies, such as Sertoli cell-only syndrome. Using a PCR-based screening, we analysed Yq microdeletions in 180 infertile patients affected by idiopathic Sertoli cell-only ...

Background: Male infertility is a common problem and needs a minimally invasive method to arrive at the appropriate diagnosis. Alternative to open testicular biopsy the fine needle aspiration cytology of the testis is being increasingly used as a minimally invasive method of evaluating testicular function. Aim of the study: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of fine needle aspiration cytology in...

OBJECTIVE To determine the patterns and the prevalence of microdeletions in the azoospermia factor subregions of the Y chromosome in Hong Kong Chinese men with severe male-factor infertility. DESIGN Controlled clinical study. SETTING Reproductive centre of a university teaching hospital, Hong Kong. PARTICIPANTS Fifty-eight men with severe male-factor infertility who participated in the in...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to investigate the various causes of male infertility using multiple approaches. METHODS Nine-hundred-twenty infertile male patients were analyzed at their first visit with one physician between January 1 and December 31, 2009. All patients were subjected to physical examination, semen analysis and azoospermic patients underwent hormonal testing, chromosomal...

INTRODUCTION The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of microsurgical subinguinal varicocelectomy on semen parameters in azoospermic men with clinical varicocele and to determine the predictive parameters of postoperative improvement. METHODS Twenty-three men with non-obstructive complete azoospermia and varicocele underwent subinguinal open microsurgical varicocele repair. The outco...

Controversial reports have been published about the influence of sperm source and of the underlying testicular pathology on success rates of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). In this controlled study, ICSI treatment cycles with testicular spermatozoa from men with obstructive and non-obstructive azoospermia were compared with ICSI ejaculated sperm cycles with semen parameters < or = 5 x ...

Seminal plasma is a promising biological fluid to use for noninvasive clinical diagnostics of male reproductive system disorders. To verify a list of prospective male infertility biomarkers, we developed a multiplex selected reaction monitoring assay and measured the relative abundance of 31 proteins in 30 seminal plasma samples from normal, nonobstructive azoospermia and post-vasectomy individ...