Sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA®) and flow cytometry-assisted TUNEL assay provide a concordant assessment of sperm DNA fragmentation as a function of age in a large cohort of approximately 10,000 patients

Table 3 Comparison of age and classical semen parameters between groups of male patients

Patient’s Age classes	20–29	30–39	40–49	50–59	P-Value
N samples	720	5737	2891	342	-
Male age (year)	27.4 ± 1.65	34.8 ± 2.68	43.1 ± 2.64	52.5 ± 2.51	-
Semen volume (ml)	3.88 ± 1.63a	3.99 ± 1.7a	3.95 ± 1.77a	3.63 ± 1.77b	1.04 e-06
Sperm concentration (10⁶/ml)	60.4 ± 45.2	59.8 ± 41.6	62.8 ± 47.3	67.5 ± 49.4	0.11
Sperm count (10⁶/ejaculate)	230 ± 194	231 ± 182	239 ± 207	228 ± 186	0.47
Total sperm motility (%)	46.6 ± 22.7a	45.3 ± 22.1a	44.6 ± 22.5a	40.7 ± 22.4b	9.4 e-06
Abnormal sperm morphology (%)	94.5 ± 4.54ab	94.2 ± 5.06b	93.9 ± 5.37a	93.9 ± 4.85ab	0.03

The patients were divided into four groups according to age. Patients over age 59 years were not included in the analysis since this group contains only 46 individuals. Mean ± standard deviation of all parameters is indicated
For each variable, Kruskall-Wallis test was used to determine whether or not there is a statistically significant difference between the medians of the different groups of male age patients. The significance level was set to P < 0.05. When significant, a Dunn’s test was conducted (Holm adjustment) to determine which groups are different. Different lower-case letters indicate a significant difference among Patient’s groups

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