TITLE:
Testicular Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology versus Open Biopsy in the Evaluation of Azoospermic Men
AUTHORS:
Ala’a Al-Deen Al-Dabbagh, Basim Sh. Ahmed
KEYWORDS:
Azoospermia, Testis FNA, Biopsy, Cytology, Histology
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Urology,
Vol.5 No.9,
August
31,
2015
ABSTRACT: Background: Male infertility is a common
problem and needs a minimally invasive method to arrive at the appropriate
diagnosis. Alternative to open testicular biopsy the fine needle aspiration
cytology (FNAC) of the testis is being increasingly usedas a minimally
invasive method of evaluating testicular function. Aim: To determine the causes
of azoospermia and evaluate the efficacy of FNAC as compared to open testicular
biopsy in evaluating azoosparmic men by correlating diagnosis from testis FNAC
with biopsy histology. Patients and Methods: We prospectively studied 67
consecutive infertile patients who referred to andrology department of
Al-Yarmouk Teaching hospital, Baghdad, Iraq between (January 2010-January
2014). All patients were azoospermic. They underwent bilateral testicular fine
needle aspiration for cytological evaluation as well as bilateral testicular
biopsy for histopathological correlation. Results: The morphological diagnosis
revealed normal spermatogenesis in 12 patients (17.9%), hyposparmatogenesis in
4 (5.9%), spermatogenic arrest in 39 (58.2%), Sertoli cell only in 7 (10.4%),
and complete tubular hyalinization in 5 patients (7.4%). Good correlation
between the 2 methods was found in 120 (91.6%) testes which was identical in
the right and left testis. Discrepancies between cytology and histology were
mainly the result of insufficient and scanty smears. Conclusion: Testicular
FNAC is a simple and minimally invasive alternative method to open testicular
biopsy in the investigation and assessment of patients with azoospermia.