Coexistence of spermatozoa morphological abnormalities in the semen of subfertile men with varicocele.
Spermatozoal morphology in semen specimens from 107 subfertile men with varicocele, aged from 18 to 50 years, were evaluated from Papanicolaou-stained smears, in order to investigate: (a) the frequency of abnormalities in the neck and tail of spermatozoa with an abnormal head; and (b) the ability of prediction of the morphology of one sperm part when the morphology of another is known. It was found that: (1) Morphological abnormalities in the neck are significantly more frequent (p less than 0.01) in spermatozoa with an abnormal head than in spermatozoa with a normal head. (2) Morphological abnormalities in the tail and cytoplasmic droplet are also more frequent, although not significantly, in spermatozoa with an abnormal head. (3) The proportional reduction in error (PRE) was low in all cases. Our results show that spermatozoa with abnormal heads present morphological abnormalities of their other parts more often than spermatozoa with normal heads. However, no prediction can be made on the nature of the morphology of a part of a spermatozoon on the basis of knowledge of the morphology of another of its parts.
Panidis
D
D
Third Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
Rousso
D
D
Vlassis
G
G
Kalogeropoulos
A
A
D000177:Acrosome / Q000648:ultrastructure; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012661:Semen; D013077:Sperm Head / Q000648:ultrastructure; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D014646:Varicocele / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*