[Importance of the tubular diameter in testicular biopsy of oligozoospermia].

This publication deals with the question how the tubular diameter in testicular biopsy gives conclusion to spermatogenic activity in patients with oligozoospermia. Therefore a collective of 50 patients with oligozoospermia between 0.3-20.7 mill. spermatozoa/ml was examined. 30 patients with occlusion azoospermia were the normal control group. In all patients a rice grain-sized testicular biopsy were performed of both testes. One part of the tissue was prepared for paraffin sections, the other one for semithin sections. The mean tubular diameter measured in all patients (that means in oligozoospermia of different severity as well as in occlusion azoospermia) was about 160 micrometers in paraffin sections and about 200 micrometers in semithin sections. But the fixation must be taken into consideration: the diameter of tubules in paraffin sections is smaller (about 20%) than in semithin sections.