Surveying 177 testis biopsies of infertile males and comparing the results with other diagnostic modalities

Recently infertility becomes more common. In half of the infertile couples, men are completely or relatively responsible. Therapeutic approaches to infertile males impose great expenses on the family. Present study deals with sensitive clinical or paraclinical methods, other than testis biopsy, that could provide informative data regarding the absence or presence of sperms. Medical files of 177 infertile men were reviewed. Then findings of physical examination, hormonal studies, past medical history and testis aspiration were compared with hystopathological findings of testis biopsies. All these patients underwent testis biopsy following the initial studies. Spermatid count per tubule was considered to be the major criteria of fertility in patients’ biopsies. Of 177 patients, 95 (53.5%) had no chance of fertility due to the absence of mature spermatid or spermatozoa in their biopsies. Testis aspiration has a sensitivity of 86%, specificity of 85% and positive predictive value of 93% to detect sperm. Our results revealed that physical examination, serum hormone assay and testis needle aspiration can not substitute hystopathological studies of the testis biopsy to prove infertility.