Table 1 Reports of patients with large-headed spermatozoa and the associated ART decisions and outcomes
Reference | Number of patients | Spermatozoa with | Description of semen | Spermatozoa with aneuploidies | Additive analysis | Status of intracouple ART | Outcome (s) for ART programmes with the patient’s sperm | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Large heads | Multiple flagella | Sperm count (106/ml) | Motility (%) | Atypical form (%) | ||||||
Yurov et al., 1996 [11] | 1 | 40 % | / | 1.0 | 1 % | 97 % | 100 % | / | ICSI: 5 cycles | no pregnancies |
In’t veld et al., 1997 [8] | 1 | 100 % | 1 to 3 flagella | 15.0 | 100 % | Head area 25.4+/−4 μm2 | ICSI: 1 cycles | 15 oocytes, 2 embryos transferred, no pregnancies | ||
Weissenberg et al., 1998 [14] | 1 | 100 % | 10.3 | 23.7 % | 99.2 % | / | ICSI: 2 cycles | 14 oocytes, 2 embryos transferred, no pregnancies | ||
Kahraman et al., 1999 [6] | 17 | 68.5 % | 3.8 | 4.7 % | 0 % | not determined | / | ICSI: 22 cycles | Fertilization rate: 43 % | |
9 embryo transfers | ||||||||||
2 pregnancies and 3 live births | ||||||||||
Viville et al., 2002 [40] | 1 | 64 % with multiple flagella | 2.0 | <5 % | 89.2 % | / | ICSI: 3 cycles | No pregnancies. | ||
Benzaken et al., 2001 [3] | 1 | 100 % | 72 % | 2.0 | <5 % | 100 % | / | Not performed | / | |
Devillard et al., 2002 [17] | 3 | 100 % (irregular shape) | 30 % | 3.2 | 25 % | 100 % | / | Not performed | / | |
>95 % | / | 30.0 | reduced | 100 % | ||||||
100 % | / | 10.0 | reduced | 100 % | ||||||
Lewis-Hones et al., 2003 [15] | 3 | 46 % | 72 % | Oligo-asthenospermia | 100 % | 100 % | / | Not performed | / | |
60 % | 49 % | 46 % | ||||||||
54 % | 50 % | 82.5 % | ||||||||
Vicari et al., 2003 [18] | 3 | 54.3 % | / | 14.4 % | 14 % | 100 % | 69.5 % | / | Not performed | / |
18.9 % | 3.7 % | 13 % | 5.2 % | |||||||
26.5 % | 0.25 % | 8 % | 13.1 % | |||||||
Kahraman et al., 2004 [31] | 21 | predominantly macrocephalic and pinhead spermatozoa | 6.7 | 14.1 % | / | / | / | ICSI and PGD, 23 cycles | Implantation rate: 25 % | |
Pregnancy rate: 33 % | ||||||||||
Abortion rate: 14.3 % | ||||||||||
52 | 11.9 | 17 % | ICSI (no PGD), 60 cycles | Implantation rate: 12.3 % | ||||||
Pregnancy rate: 27.8 % | ||||||||||
Abortion rate: 46.7 % | ||||||||||
Guthauser et al., 2006 [4] | 2 | 91 % with multiple flagella | 30.4 | 0 % | 100 % | 100 %, 95 % for spermatozoa with normal-sized heads | Not performed | / | ||
82 % with multiple flagella | 3.6 | 100 %, 90 % for spermatozoa with normal-sized heads | ||||||||
Achard et al., 2007 [10] | 4 | 29.5 % | / | 8.2 | 32 % | 70 % | 51.4 % | / | ICSI, 7 cycles | Fertilisation rate: 65.6 % |
22 % | / | 6.2 | 33 % | 69 % | 43.6 % | |||||
49.7 % | / | 1.3 | 7 % | 91.5 % | 71.7 % | One live birth (for patient 1) | ||||
19 % | / | 1.7 | 9 % | 96 % | 25.6 % | |||||
Perrin et al., 2008 [16] | 1 | 62 % | 54 % | 2.8 | 0 % | 100 % | 99.3 % | / | Not performed | / |
Guthauser et al., 2011 [7] | 1 | 47 % | 0 % | 28.3 | 8 % | 98 % | 3 % | Uncondensed chromatin:46 % | ICSI | Lost to follow-up |
Ben Khelifa et al., 2011 [9] | 2 | 100 % | 28 % | 0.9 | 8 % | MAI: 3.5 | / | / | ICSI, 6 cycles | Fertilization rate: 17.0 % |
100 % | 52 % | 0.8 | 7 % | MAI: 3.6 | ICSI, 5 cycles | |||||
No pregnancies | ||||||||||
Guthauser et al., 2013 [26] | 1 | 12 %, Normally shaped | 0 % | 89 | 40 % | 80 % | 78 %, 68 % for spermatozoa with normal-sized heads | Uncondensed chromatin: 11 % | Not performed | / |
Shimizu et al., 2012 [5] | 1 | “Almost all” (exact % not specified) | 0.2 | 25 % | 99.7 % | Not determined | ICSI | One ICSI cycle, one live birth | ||