Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

    Background: Not all patients benefit from ICSI.  To establish the factors that affect the success rate of ICSI is probably useful in determining the prognosis of ICSI. The aim of this study was the evaluation of the relationship between semen parameters and the outcome of the Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection( ICSI).

Methods: A retrospective case control study was performed on 523 infertile couple who were the candidates for ICSI. After performing ICSI, two positive increasing titers of β hCG test was considered as pregnancy. The results of semen analysis were compared in the two groups with or without pregnancy. SPSS V.16 was used for statistical analysis, and student t and Chi² tests were used for comparison of parameters.

Results: Out of total 523 cases studied there were 106(20.2%) positive pregnancy tests ( pregnant group), and 417 cases without pregnancy( non pregnant group). Sperm count(49.10±2.78 million in pregnant group vs. 42.51±1.47 million in non  pregnant group, p= 0.043), abnormal head ( 65.08±1.67 percent in pregnant group vs. 69.48±0.83 percent in non pregnant group, p=0.019), sperm agglutination ( high agglutination in 20.8% cases in pregnant group vs. 10.3% high  agglutination in non pregnant group, p= 0.006), and leucocytospermia(1.04±0.09 in pregnant group vs.1.41±0.14 in  non pregnant group, p= 0.026) showed statistically significant difference between the two groups. The other parameters including abnormality in tail and neck, semen volume and motility did not have significant difference.

Conclusion: More sperm count, less abnormal head and low leucocytospermia increase the success rate of ICSI. High agglutination does not reduce the success rate of ICSI.