Metabolic Imaging Used to Locate Sperm in Infertile Men

Men with no sperm in their ejaculate--a condition known as azoospermia--may no longer need invasive procedures to determine if they have sperm in their testes, according to a new study.

Instead, the study, published in the February 2010 issue of the journal Human Reproduction, found that magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS)--a simple metabolic scan that combines the use of 1H spectroscopy with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-could be utilized to determine the likelihood of finding sperm in men with nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA).

The study's lead author was Paul Turek, M.D., former professor and endowed chair at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF; USA) and founder of The Turek Clinic (San Francisco, CA, USA). "Some men with azoospermia may still have small amounts of sperm in the testicle, but determining which of these men has retrievable sperm is challenging. This is a novel and exciting application of metabolic scanning that shows great potential to eliminate invasive biopsies and gives new hope to infertile men who wish to father children,” said Dr. Turek, a men's reproductive health expert.

Conventional methods for evaluating if sperm exist, including testicular biopsy and micro dissection, are very invasive and have only a 60-65% success rate. Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) sperm mapping, pioneered by Dr. Turek, is far less invasive, but still involves the use of FNA to obtain tissue samples from the testes.

In contrast, MRS is a noninvasive scan that measures metabolic activity in the testis. The study revealed that the scan is as accurate as a more invasive testis biopsy in reading several abnormal patterns of sperm production typically associated with infertility and azoospermia. It also showed that testis tissue containing spermatids or sperm carry a distinct chemical signature that can be distinguished by MRS.

Moreover, MRS has the ability to evaluate testis metabolism in as many as 100 areas within the testis, significantly increasing the ability to sample for sperm well beyond any of the more invasive techniques typically used today. "Trust me when I say that men would rather have a noninvasive scan done than have a surgical procedure to determine whether or not they might be able to be fathers,” stated Dr. Turek.

MRS is a noninvasive diagnostic technology that is cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Related Links:
The Turek Clinic