Is it necessary to focus on morphologically normal acrosome of sperm during intracytoplasmic sperm injection?

Background & objectives: The detailed assessment of sperm morphology is important in the semen of infertile men because there is a low proportion of normal spermatozoa. One of the parameters of such sperm morphology is the acrosome, and its effect on assisted reproductive outcomes is controversial. This study was undertaken to evaluate the association between different forms of acrosome on the chromatin status and the assisted reproductive outcomes. Methods: A total of 1587 unstained sperms from 514 infertile men were captured and analyzed for different acrosome forms (normal, large, small, skew, amorphous acrosome and without acrosome) in real time during intracytoplasmic sperm injection into oocytes. The association between the percentage of sperms with atypical acrosome and head shapes and the sperm chromatin status was studied. Fertilization, zygote and embryo quality and clinical pregnancy rates were calculated for different groups of sperms. Results: The highest frequency of irregular shapes of acrosomes, such as small, large and amorphous, was observed in abnormal ellipticity, anteroposterior symmetry and angularity parameters, respectively (P <0.05). The fertilization rate of injected sperms with large (P <0.01) and small (P=0.001) acrosomes and without acrosome (P=0.001) was significantly lower in comparison with normal acrosomes. The quality of zygotes (Z3, P=0.05), embryos (grade C, P <0.05) and the pregnancy rate (P=0.001) from injected sperms with large acrosomes were significantly lower compared with normal acrosomes. Interpretation & conclusions: Our findings showed that the different sperm acrosome morphologies (e.g., large, small, and without acrosome) might negatively relate with chromatin integrity and decrease the sperm's fertility potential and pregnancy rate during intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) cycles.

Study of characteristics and correlation of the head shape of infants with plagiocephaly / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

Objective To study the characteristics of the head shape and correlations among the shape parameters in infants at the plagiocephaly.Methods One hundred and four infants at the age of 4-12 months from Department of Rehabilitation,Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center with plagiocephaly or normal head shape from January to October 2016 were selected for head shape characteristic analysis.Seventy-four males and 30 females were included.Seventy-three infants (53 males and 20 females) with plagiocephaly were plagiocephaly group with age of (7.07 ±2.23) months.Thirty-one infants (21 males and 10 females) with normal head shape were control group with age for (8.29 ± 2.81) months.The Spectra scanner 2.0 was applied to acquire head shape parameters including cephalic ratio (CR),radial symmetry index (RSI),oblique diagonal difference (ODD),and cranial vault asymmetry index (CVAI).The correlation between the head shape characteristics and shape parameters of infants in different month ages and gender with plagiocephaly were analyzed through independent sample t-test and Pearson correlation analysis.Among all the enrolled infants,there were 46 infants in 4-7 months (36 cases with plagiocephaly and 10 cases with normal head shape),34 infants in ＞ 7-10 months (24 cases with plagiocephaly and 10 cases with normal head shape),and 24 infants in ＞ 10-12 months (13 cases with plagiocephaly and 11 cases with normal head shape).Results CR in 4-7 months group and ＞ 7-10 months of plagiocephaly group were all significantly higher than that in control group [(91.32 ± 5.60) ％ vs.(80.73 ± 2.68) ％,(90.31 ± 6.22) ％ vs.(84.14 ± 3.57) ％],and the differences were all statistically significant (t =-5.765,-2.924,all P ＜ 0.05).The difference was not significant of the CR in ＞ 10-12 months plagiocephaly group compared with that in control group (t =-1.917,P =0.060).RSI,ODD,and CVAI of plagiocephaly group in all ages were significantly higher than those in control group [(46.40 ± 13.59) mmvs.(16.13 ±4.18) mm,(11.84±3.58) mmvs.(3.44±1.59) mm,7.92±2.43 vs.2.34± 1.07],and the differences were all statistically significant (t =-17.210,-16.579,-16.304,all P ＜ 0.001).CR,RSI,ODD,and CVAI of males and females in plagiocephaly group were respectively higher than those of control group,and the differences were all statistically significant (all P ＜ 0.001).There was no statistical significance in CR,RSI,ODD,CVAI between males and females in plagiocephaly group or control group (all P ＞ 0.05).Pearson correlation analysis revealed that there was no correlation between CR and RSI,ODD,CVAI in any age of plagiocephaly group (all P ＞ 0.05).There was a positive correlation among RSI,ODD,and CVAI in the plagiocephaly group in any age (r =0.940,0.912,0.973,all P ＜ 0.001).Conclusions In the infants with plagiocephaly may exist asymmetric head shape and the shorter length of head at the same time.When one of the values of RSI,ODD and CVAI increases,the other two values increase too with more serious level of plagiocephaly.