Altered luteinizing hormone pulsatility in infertile patients with idiopathic oligoasthenozoospermia.

In a previous study, we demonstrated that oligoasthenozoo-spermic (OAZ) patients had two types of testosteroneresponse to human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG)administration: group 1 (OAZ-1) had an altered, mono-phasic (no first peak) response, and group 2 (OAZ-2) hada normal biphasic response. The objective of the presentwork was to study the luteinizing hormone (LH) pulsatilityin OAZ-1 compared with both OAZ-2 and men of provenfertility (PF), in order partly to determine the possibleaetiology of the blunted acute testosterone response toHCG in these patients. LH pulsatility was measured in10 PF, 10 OAZ-1 and 10 OAZ-2 patients, in blood samplestaken every 5 min for 6 h in PF, and for 4 h in OAZpatients. LH values were determined by a time-resolvedimmunofluorometric assay. Frequency and amplitude ofthe LH pulses were determined by a computer program.LH pulse frequency, expressed as pulses/4 h, was signi-ficantly lower in OAZ-1 (1.5 K 0.97) than in PF(2.4 K 0.63) and OAZ-2 (2.4K 0.84) patients. In six OAZ-1and two OAZ-2 patients, LH pulsatility was diminished, asthey showed less than two pulses/4 h. No statisticallysignificant differences in LH pulse amplitude were found.These results, together with a higher number of OAZ-1cases found with decreased LH pulsatility, suggest that,at least in a subset of these men, quantitative and/orqualitative alterations of LH secretion might haveoccurred.Key words: luteinizing hormone/luteinizing hormone pulsa-tility/male infertility/oligoasthenozoospermiaIntroductionIn a previous study, we demonstrated that the kinetics of thesteroid response to human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG)stimulation could be used to determine possible alterationsof testicular hormone production in oligoasthenozoospermic2782