A Study of Testicular Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) in Male Infertility - Abstract
Fine needle aspiration cytology of superficial as well as of deep seated lesions is now well recognized in diagnosis of neoplastic as well as non-neoplastic and inflammatory lesions. Recently it has also gained popularity for its diagnostic and therapeutic role in male infertility. 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 used as a minimally invasive method of evaluating testicular function. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) as compared to open testicular biopsy in the evalu¬ation of male infertility by correlating diagnoses from tes¬tis FNA cytology with biopsy histology.
Materials &Methods: We prospectively studied 50 infertile male patients who were referred to infertility clinic and urology out-patient department (OPD). 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 19 patients, hyposparmatogenesis in 03, maturation arrest in 11, Sertoli cell only syndrome in 12. Good correlation between the two methods was found in 62 testes (67.4%) testes which were 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.