title: High sperm aneuploidy rate in unselected infertile patients and its relationship with intracytoplasmic sperm injection outcome.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Men with oligoasthenoteratozoospermia (OAT) frequently undergo intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) as a treatment for their infertility. However, there is an increased risk of transmitting chromosomal abnormalities to the offspring given that natural selection is bypassed by the use of this technique and patients have an increased rate of sperm aneuploidy which, in addition, may negatively affect ICSI outcome. For this reason, the rate of sperm aneuploidy in unselected patients undergoing ICSI and its impact on ICSI performance have been evaluated.
  
  
  METHODS
  Aneuploidy and diploidy were evaluated in spermatozoa separated by swim-up for oocyte injection, using DNA probes for chromosomes 8, 12, 18, X and Y.
  
  
  RESULTS
  ICSI patients had sperm aneuploidy and diploidy rates significantly higher than those of 13 normozoospermic men who served as controls. Although the total aneuploidy rate varied considerably between the 18 patients, 15 of them (83%) had values above the upper range of the control group. Eighteen ICSI cycles were performed with an overall fertilization rate of 95% and a pregnancy rate of 39%. The aneuploidy rate of the 11 patients whose wives did not achieve pregnancy was slightly higher than that of pregnant couples, but the difference did not reach statistical significance. However, 10 patients in this group (91%) had a sperm aneuploidy rate well above the upper limit of the controls as compared with two patients in the "pregnant" group (29%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study has shown that unselected patients undergoing ICSI had an elevated sperm aneuploidy rate. Lack of pregnancy was associated with a tendency towards an increased aneuploidy rate; however, pregnancy occurred even in the presence of an elevated sperm aneuploidy rate.
authors: Division of Endocrinology, Ospedale Garibaldi, Piazza S. Maria di Gesù, University of Catania, 951213 Catania, Italy. acaloger@unict.it
authors: A E
authors: AE
authors: Calogero
authors: A
authors: A
authors: De Palma
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Grazioso
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Barone
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Burrello
authors: I
authors: I
authors: Palermo
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Gulisano
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Pafumi
authors: R
authors: R
authors: D'Agata
mesh_terms: D000022:Abortion, Spontaneous / Q000235:genetics; D000328:Adult; D000782:Aneuploidy; D002881:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 12; D002887:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 18; D002898:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 8; D004171:Diploidy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000235:genetics*; D007621:Karyotyping; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D020554:Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000002:abnormalities / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014960:X Chromosome; D014998:Y Chromosome