[The correlation of morphological and biochemical factors in human ejaculate in various andrological diagnoses. I. Relationship between ejaculate volume, number, motility and morphology of the spermatozoa with regard to age].

This first report from a study conducted to determine correlations between morphological and biochemical parameters in human ejaculate presents the results based on the measurement of predominantly morphological criteria in patients of various clinical diagnosis groups. The allocation of the 525 patients, who were recruited into the study during the period 1972/73 in the Department of Andrology, Hamburg-Eppendorf, to the diagnosis groups normozoospermia (196), asthenozoospermia (92), oligozoospermia (181) and azoospermia (56) was performed in accordance with the Recommendations for Andrological Nomenclature (1970). The following data were evaluated for this report: height (cm), weight (kg), age (years), ejaculate volume (ml), number of spermatozoa (mill./ml), motility (percentage of highly motile, motile and non-motile spermatozoa), round cells (mill./ml), morphology (percentage of normal-shaped/pathological spermatozoa), changes to the head, middle and tail sections (percentage of the pathological spermatozoa). Relationships between a dependent biological variable (y) and a variable to be assumed independent (x) were obtained by adaptation of polynomials of the 3rd degree: y = b0 + b1 + b2x2 + b3x3. The coefficients (b) which did not differ significantly (p greater than 0.05) from zero were eliminated step by step in regression analyses with breakdown and the resulting mean curves within the ranges covered by the sample depicted graphically. For the time being, the relationships found are described only in the sense of a collection of material. The increased occurrence of pathological spermatozoa in advancing age together with lower values for highly motile spermatozoa could be regarded as a result of a lower organ effectiveness of testosterone, which is protein-bound to an increased extent with advancing age. At the present time there is no explanation for the larger numbers of spermatozoa found with increasing age. The positive correlation between higher sperm counts and high motility, and between high motility and a lower percentage of pathological forms corresponds to expectations from earlier studies. The number of changes to the head, middle and tail sections increase proportionally in keeping with an increasing percentage of pathological forms. When the changes to the head, middle and tail sections are placed in relationship to the diagnosis groups normozoospermia, asthenozoospermia and oligozoospermia a disproportional percental participation becomes noticeable.