title: Can blood and semen presepsin levels in males predict pregnancy in couples undergoing intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether semen and plasma presepsin values measured in men with normozoospermia and oligoasthenospermia undergoing invitro-fertilization would be helpful in predicting ongoing pregnancy and live birth.
  
  
  METHODS
  Group-I was defined as patients who had pregnancy after treatment and Group-II comprised those with no pregnancy. Semen and blood presepsin values were subsequently compared between the groups. Parametric comparisons were performed using Student's t-test, and non-parametric comparisons were conducted using the Mann-WhitneyUtest.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 42 patients in Group-I and 72 in Group-II. In the context of successful pregnancy and live birth, semen presepsin values were statistically significantly higher in Group-I than in Group-II (p= 0.004 and p= 0.037, respectively). The most appropriate semen presepsin cut-off value for predicting both ongoing pregnancy and live birth was calculated as 199 pg/mL. Accordingly, their sensitivity was 64.5% to 59.3%, their specificity was 57.0% to 54.2%, and their positive predictive value was 37.0% to 29.6%, respectively; their negative predictive value was 80.4% in both instances.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Semen presepsin values could be a new marker that may enable the prediction of successful pregnancy and/or live birth. Its negative predictive values are especially high.
authors.affiliation: Dr. Ali Ovayolu, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Cengiz Gokcek Public Hospital, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ovayolu
authors.affiliation: Dr. Cansev Yilmaz Arslanbuga, Department of Clinical Microbiology, Zeynep Kamil Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Cansev Yilmaz
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Arslanbuğa
authors.affiliation: Dr. Ismet Gun, Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, GATA Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ismet
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gun
authors.affiliation: Dr. Belgin Devranoglu, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Zeynep Kamil Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Belgin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Devranoglu
authors.affiliation: Dr. Arman Ozdemir, Department of Urology, Zeynep Kamil Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Arman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ozdemir
authors.affiliation: Dr. Sule Eren Cakar, Department of Clinical Microbiology, Zeynep Kamil Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Sule Eren
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Cakar
keywords: ICSI; Infertility; Oligoasthenoteratozoospermia; Presepsin; Seminal plasma