Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on semen quality in male partners of infertile couples: a hospital-based observational study / 亚洲男科学杂志(英文版)

The effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on male fertility have received considerable attention because human testes contain high levels of angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 receptors, through which severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can enter. Early studies showed decreases in semen quality during and after recovery from COVID-19. However, no semen quality studies have examined the effects of widespread subclinical and mild disease, as well as changes in lifestyle, psychosocial behavior, intake of dietary supplements, and stress. This cross-sectional study compared semen quality parameters in male partners of infertile couples between men who underwent semen analysis before the COVID-19 pandemic (prepandemic group) and men who underwent semen analysis during the pandemic period (pandemic group); the analysis sought to clarify the overall effects of the pandemic. No participants in the pandemic group had experienced clinically overt disease. Among the 239 participants, mean body weight (P = 0.001), mean body mass index (P < 0.001), median sperm concentration (P = 0.014), total sperm count (P = 0.006), and total percentages of motile (P = 0.013) and abnormal cells (P < 0.001) were significantly greater in the pandemic group (n = 137) than those in the prepandemic group (n = 102). Among abnormal cells, the percentages of cells with excess residual cytoplasm (P < 0.001), head defects (P < 0.001), and tail defects (P = 0.015) were significantly greater in the pandemic group than those in the prepandemic group. With the exception of morphology, the overall semenogram results were better in the pandemic group than those in the prepandemic group.

A comparative study of calf muscle circumference with other anthropometry measurement as a measure of low birth weight in neonates

Background: India having 3rd highest incidence of low birth weight (LBW) infants (28%) in the world. Majority of deliveries in our country are conducted at home by untrained traditional birth attendants or relatives, so it is not possible for untrained birth attenders to operate weighing machine in rural areas, therefore to find an alternative method for the estimation of low birth weight we used simple anthropometric indicators like calf circumference which is easily used by rural communities.Methods: It was a Cross-sectional study done at tertiary care center, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India during 1 year period in 2018. 150 neonates without any congenital malformation delivered at hospital irrespective of gestational age were subjected to anthropometric measurements. The different anthropometric measurements like calf circumference, chest circumference were used and data was analyzed by using Receiver Operating Characteristic curve (ROC) to find out the cut-off values with the highest sensitivity and specificity for birth weight <2500gm and <1800gm. For comparison Pearson's Correlation coefficients was used.Results: From different anthropometric measurements, calf circumference of 9.38 cm and 7.90cm had higher sensitivity and specificity in detecting birth weight babies of <2500gm, and <1800gm respectively. The best correlation was observed in calf circumference (r=0.989) and (r=0.990) for identifying babies with birth weight group 1.21-1.80kg and group 1.81-2.50kg.Conclusions: In the absence of a weighing machine, simple measurements like calf circumference is the best indicator in identifying low birth weight babies.