OBJECTIVE: Azoospermia owing to testicular disorders is the most severe manifestation of male infertility. The main concern for patients with nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) is the probability of successful sperm retrieval following testicular sperm extraction (TESE). Therefore, the goal of this study was to determine predictive factors correlated with sperm retrieval. METHODS: We assessed the testicular histopathological patterns, the choice of TESE surgical procedure, hormone levels, and chromosomal abnormalities in patients with NOA (n=170). The histopathology specimens were analyzed based on the histopathological patterns of hypospermatogenesis, maturation arrest, and Sertoli cell-only syndrome. RESULTS: The mean rate of sperm retrieval was 48.8%. The rate of sperm retrieval was significantly higher in the hypospermatogenesis group than in the other groups (p<0.001). There was a positive correlation between micro-TESE (vs. conventional TESE) and the sperm retrieval rate (odds ratio, 8.077; p<0.01). A logistic regression model demonstrated that high levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and small testicular volume were significantly associated with lower chances of successful sperm retrieval. CONCLUSION: Some parameters, including testicular histopathology patterns, FSH levels, testicular volume, and method of TESE surgery, may be able to predict the chances of obtaining spermatozoa in patients with NOA. However, despite the efficiency of some predictive models, the hope of retrieving any functioning spermatozoa may be sufficient to disregard predictive factors of the success of intracytoplasmic sperm injection in these patients.
Azoospermia* ; Chromosome Aberrations ; Follicle Stimulating Hormone ; Hope ; Humans ; Infertility, Male ; Logistic Models ; Male ; Methods ; Oligospermia ; Pathology ; Sertoli Cell-Only Syndrome ; Sperm Injections, Intracytoplasmic ; Sperm Retrieval* ; Spermatozoa*

Introduction: Recent compensators are commonly applied in IMRT. The precise properties of applied compensators such as thickness, attenuation coefficient and build up factor are intensively important for IMRT calculations. Method: The brass compensator used for 6 MV photon beam was studied to estimate the relative effect of thickness and field size on IMRT calculations. Various field size together with several compensator thicknesses were examined. Result: The average reduction of effective attenuation coefficient (EAC), for the fields of 10×10 cm2 to 20×20 cm2, was 9.94%. By increasing the field size, EAC was decreased. The major reduction of EAC due to increasing field size was found to be 9.62%. The build up factor was increased by 2% to 21.8% respect to field size and compensator thickness. Also, the build up factor was increased by adding up the thickness. The rate of changes ranged from 24% to 48 %.Conclusion: The compensator thickness and field size are significantly important to calculate the effective attenuation coefficient and build up facto