title: Prediction of successful sperm retrieval in patients with nonobstructive azoospermia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Our aim was to evaluate the predictive values of factors that indicate successful sperm retrieval in men with nonobstructive azoospermia.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated 85 infertile men with nonobstructive azoospermia who underwent multiple bilateral testicular biopsies. Factors including age, infertility period, surgical history, testicular volume, testicular consistency, serum follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), serum inhibin B, serum luteinizing hormone, and serum total testosterone were assessed in relation to sperm retrieval results.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Spermatozoa were retrieved in 18 biopsies (21.2%). Follicle-stimulating hormone, serum inhibin B, and testicular volume were associated with the results of sperm retrieval. Men with a higher testicular volume, a higher serum inhibin B, and a lower FSH had successful sperm retrieval. The cutoff points were determined as 9.5 mL for testicular volume, 9.9 IU/L for serum FSH, and 39.8 pg/mL for serum inhibin B. These 3 factors had strong correlations with each other. The sensitivities and specificities were 88.9% and 94% for testicular volume, 97% and 83.3% for FSH, and 72.2% and 95.5% for serum inhibin B, respectively. The positive predictive value for a combination of serum FSH and inhibin B was 100%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Serum FSH and serum inhibin B are useful markers for evaluation of the presence of sperm in patients with nonobstructive azoospermia. Inhibin B has a high specificity when combined with serum FSH and their measurements can be helpful in all patients with nonobstructive azoospermia before decision making for sperm retrieval.
authors.affiliation: Urology and Nephrology Research Center and Shaheed Labbafinejad Medical Center, Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. ziaee@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Seyed Amirmohsen
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ziaee
authors.forename: Mohammadreza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ezzatnegad
authors.forename: Mohammadreza
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nowroozi
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jamshidian
authors.forename: Hamidreza
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Abdi
authors.forename: Seyed Mohammad Mehdi
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hosseini Moghaddam