New Discriminatory Level for Glucosidase Activity to Diagnose Epididymal Obstruction or Dysfunction

Abstract

Neutral α-glucosidase activity was measured in seminal plasma of 30 patients consulting for infertility with a variety of disorders, and compared with 25 normal controls. Significantly more of the study populations (asthenozoospermia, 4/6; oligozoospermia, 3/5; azoospermia 8/15) had a neutral α-glucosidase activity less than 10 mIU/mL as compared with control samples (3/25). Also the mean (± SD) neutral α-glucosidase activity in patients with asthenozoospermia (11.7 ± 9.2) oligozoospermia (11.3 ± 7.2), and post vasectomy azoospermia (5.3 ± 3.4) was significantly (p <. 05) less than ejaculate from controls (21.2 ± 14). A seminal α-glucosidase level of 10 mlU/mL appears to be a useful discriminatory marker in the diagnosis of epididymal obstruction or dysfunction.

Key Words:

• neutral α-glucosidase activity
• seminal plasma
• semen analysis
• infertility epididymis
• male infertility