STUDY OF SPERM DNA FRAGMENTATION IN MALE PARTNERS OF INFERTILE COUPLES

Background: Infertility affects 15% couples of reproductive age in those 35% with male factor. Semen analysis is cornerstone to evaluate male factor infertility. Sperm chromatine dispersion test is light weight and fast test Normal sperm creates sperm halo. If sperm DNA fragments exceeds 30% sperm quality is significantly reduced. Aim: To study the Role of DNA fragmentation in male partner of infertile couple. Results: The mean age of cases was 31.71 years and that of control was 32.63 years with majority of cases (43.3%) were in age group 31-35 years and controls were (56.7%) in age group 25-30 years. The age difference was statistically non-significant as p-value is greater than 0.05. The mean BMI in cases was 22.9 kg/m2 and that of control was 24.5 kg/m2 with majority of cases (73.33%) and controls (53.3%) had BMI between 18.5-24.9 kg/m2. The difference was statistically non-significant. Here in cases 56.7% were tobacco chewer followed by 30% were smoker, 26.7% were alcoholic, 6.7% had other habits and 1% had no personal history. In control 33.33% were tobacco chewer followed by 23.3% were smoker, 6.7% were alcoholic and 36.7% had no personal history. In cases 83.3% had DFI greater than equal to 30 and 16.7% had DFI less than 30. In control 20% had DFI greater than equal to 30 and 80% had DFI less than 30. The mean DFI in cases was 37.26 and that of control was 23.64. The difference was statistically significant Conclusion: Sperm DNA integrity measurement is more reproducible and more objective than conventional parameters. Our study indicates that the levels of sperm DNA fragmentation in men with subnormal semen parameters were significantly higher compared to the levels in men with normal semen parameters. SDI may reveal a hidden abnormality of sperm nuclear DNA in infertile men classified as idiopathic based on apparently normal standard sperm parameters. This test has an important diagnostic and prognostic value in the evaluation of male infertility, particularly in relation to assisted reproductive technologies. Keywords: DNA fragmentation, DFI