RELATION BETWEEN MORPHOLOGICAL DEFECTS IN HUMAN SPERMATOZOA AND SPONTANEOUS ABORTIONS IN PATIENTS UNDERGOING ICSI
VILYANA GEORGIEVA*, DIMITAR PARVANOV, EFROSINI TASKUDI, GUEORGUI STAMENOV,
TODOR CHAUSHEV
Nadezhda,Women’s Health Hospital, 3 “Blaga vest” Street, Sofia, Bulgaria
*Corresponding author: vilqna@yahoo.com
Keywords: multiple defects, human spermatozoa, spontaneous abortions, ICSI
Abstract: To investigate the effect of the ‘male factor’ and especially the role of sperm morphological defects in the pathogenesis of spontaneous abortion, 107 men undergoing ICSI were studied for semen parameters retrospectively. The patients were divided into two groups, depending on their reproductive outcome: (1) 65 couples who achieved a successful pregnancy (live births); (2) 42 couples who experienced spontaneous abortions. Couples with anovulation, tubal disease, endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome and severe male factor infertility were excluded. Only cases with good quality oocytes were included. Evaluation of morphology was performed according to Tygerberg-Kruger strict criteria. Due to the retrospective nature of the study, the approval of our institutional board was not required. Statistical analysis was performed by using statistical program SPSS (version 21.0). Independent- Sample t-test was performed to find out whether any significant mean difference exist between the studied groups. Results were reported as mean ± standard deviation. Significant differences were considered when p-value is less than 0.05.
Significant differences in the percentage of spermatozoa with multiple defects were observed between the two studied groups of patients. The mean value of multiple defects in the abortion group was higher compared to patient group with live births (40.26 ± 9.78 vs. 29.83 ± 7.24; P=0.047). We found a dramatic increase of spontaneous abortions above a cut-off level of 40%. Miscarriage rate among the couples with more multiple defects in males than the mentioned cut-off was significantly higher (74%).
Patients with higher frequency of spermatozoa with multiple defects have an increased chance of spontaneous abortion. Thus, it is concluded that multiple defects found in human spermatozoa may serve as an essential morphological biomarker in the abortion risk assessment models.