Study on clinical and genetic characteristics of male patients with non-obstructive azoospermia

Abstract

We examined 501 patients with non - obstructive azoospermia to evaluate clinical, subclinical, and genetic characteristics. The results show that the average age of patients in the study was 29.8 ± 5.5 years. Primary infertility accounts for the majority, with a rate of 90.3%. There was 38.6% of patients had a history of mumps orchitis. The average levels of FSH, LH, testosterone were 31.6 ± 16.5 mIU/mL, 15.5 ± 10 mIU/mL and 12.8 ± 7.13 nmol/L, respectively. The prevalence of chromosomal abnormalities was 30.7%. Of these, the sex chromosome aneuploidy with 47,XXY karyotype (Klinefelter syndrome) accounted for 27.3%. The incidence of AZF microdeletion was 13.8%. Of these, AZFc deletion was the most common at the rate of 42.1%, AZFa deletion, which accounted for 2.6%, were the least prevalent, and the frequency of AZFd deletion was 5.3%. However, there was no solitary AZFb deletion, which combined with other AZF deletions with 34.2%. Our research shows that mumps orchitis and chromosomal abnormalities are the leading causes of azoospermia. Screening for genetic abnormalities plays an important role in infertile patients with non - obstructive azoospermia.