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HCV-RNA detection in different fractions of HCV/HIV-1 co-infected men by nested PCR
No full textNON DISPONIBIL
Should HCV chronic infection impairer male fertility?
No full textBACKGROUD:
It is estimated that about 3% of world population is affected by HCV virus. Most of affected male is during reproductive age. The sexual way of infection is doubtful even now. It is estimated that HCV RNA is presented in semen in 11% - 31.6% of cases.
HCV RNA has been found in semen plasma and in not-spermatic cells, but not in sperm before and after swim-up.
Aim of our study is to evaluate the HCV patients’ semen parameters compared to WHO 2010 semen parameters.
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
It is an observational study that include 58 patients following by our Fertility Center located in Luigi Sacco Hospital, in Milan, during 2010 to 2015. This patients’ group was affected by HCV chronic infection, nobody had hepatitis B, HIV or genital infections.
All semen analysis was performed by the same biologist and in the same laboratory, after 3-5 days of sexual abstinence.
RESULTS:
Population’s study characteristics are described in the table 1.
Patients 58
Age 43±6
Virus values 4810174
(range 1020-36091104)
Way of infectious
Unknown 58 (100%)
TABLE 1
Table 2 shows results of comparison between patients HVC RNA positive and WHO fertile reference group.
HCV male group presents median semen parameters significant lower than median semen parameters according to WHO 2010 values.
About 50% of HCV patients have morphology’ and motility’s values below the fifth percentile of WHO reference values.
Semen parameters HCV
patients
(n=58) Lower limit parameter WHO Population
WHO Patients (%)
Outside reference WHO parameter
P value
Volume (ml) 2,5
(0,5-6)
1,5 3,7 34,5 <0,05
Sperm concentration (106/ml) 24,5
(0-123)
15 73 27,6 <0,05
Total sperm count
(106) 54,5
(0-297,5)
39 255 32,8 <0,05
Progressive
Motility 34(0-60)
32 55 48,3 <0,05
Normal
Morphology (%) 5 (1-27)
4 15 50 <0,05
TABLE 2
CONCLUSION:
Our study provides evidence that all semen parameters of HVC-positive men are impaired comparing to WHO 2010 reference values and therefore a possible altered fertility in this group.
Oxidative stress as a host response to HCV core protein and reactive oxidative species produced could damage sperm DNA and alter sperm quality.
Concluding our Fertility center strongly suggests reproductive counselling in all couples with HCV male partner who desire a pregnancy
Effects of HIV-1 infection and antiretroviral therapy on semen parameters and sperm DNA integrity
No full textStudy question: Do HIV-1 infection and antiretroviral therapy affect semen parameters and sperm DNA integrity?
Summary answer: A significant proportion of HIV-1 infected patients had semen values below the 5° percentile of the WHO 2010 reference group; sperm nuclear fragmentation rate was significantly increased in HIV-1 infected patients taking antiretroviral therapy compared with naïve HIV-1 infected patients.
What is known already: HIV-1 infection may affect semen parameters, such as motility, sperm concentration, or total sperm count. HAART (highly active antiretroviral therapy) could change spermatozoa metabolism due to mitochondria damage that, in turn, may be responsible for the reduction of their motility and fertilization competence.
Study design, size, duration: For the first aim of the study, we assessed the potential effects of HIV-1 infection on semen parameters and we retrospectively analyzed semen samples obtained from 770 HIV-1 patients under stable antiretroviral therapy. For the second aim of the study, we evaluated the effects of HAART on sperm DNA fragmentation and we designed a case-control prospective study, comparing semen samples of HIV-1 infected patients receiving HAART (n. 51) versus naïve HIV-1 infected patients (n. 24). For both purposes of the study patients were recruited between January 2010 and June 2015 in our Assisted Reproduction Unit in Hospital “L. Sacco” (University of Milan, Italy) and all patients were asking reproductive assistance with their HIV negative partner.
Participants/materials, setting, methods: Objective 1: 770 HIV-1 patients, under stable antiretroviral therapy. Co-infections with HBV or HCV and genital tract infections represented exclusion criteria; all patients received HAART and had a CD4 count > 200 cells/mm3. Complete semen analysis was performed according to WHO 2010 recommendations, with each semen variable of the study population being compared with the WHO reference group.
Objective 2: 51 HIV-1 infected patients taking antiretroviral therapy (HAART) vs. 24 HIV-1
infected patients not receiving antiretroviral therapy. Sperm DNA fragmentation and semen analysis was performed using chromatin dispersion test (SCD). For both purposes of the study, all the patients did not present any clinical sign of their disease.
Main results and the role of chance: Median values of all assessed semen parameters were significantly lower in HIV-1 infected patients compared to WHO median values (p<0.05). In addition, for each semen variable, a significant proportion of HIV-1 infected patients had values below the 5° percentile of the WHO 2010 reference group (p< 0.05). Sperm DNA fragmentation rate was significantly increased in HIV-1 infected patients taking antiretroviral therapy (68.65%) compared with the group of HIV-1 infected patients not receiving antiretroviral therap
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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