(I)ncreased incidence of meiotic anomalies in oligoasthenozoospermic malespreselected for intracytoplasmic sperm injection

Purpose: Based on data from the literature, to detect the possible presence of an increased frequency of meiotic anomalies in oligoasthenozoospermic ( OA) patients preselected for intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Methods: Meiotic studies in as many successive patients with a clinical ind ication for a diagnostic testicular biopsy as needed to complete at least 1 00 cases with a severe OA (motile sperm concentration less than or equal to 1.5 x 10(6)/ml). Results: An increased incidence of meiotic anomalies was found in 102 patie nts with a severe OA (17.6%) compared to the mean for 105 patients with oth er etiologies in the series (5.7%) or the mean for patients reviewed in the literature (6.5%). Conclusions: Patients with a severe OA have a higher incidence of synaptic anomalies. This may result in the malsegregation of chromosomes at meiosis I, producing abnormal sperm, and could explain the high incidence of steril ity and some cases of abortion (in two thirds of the couples with abortions the husband had meiotic anomalies) in this group.