Application value of estradiol in seminal plasma in predicting semen parameters of male infertile patients

Objective To research the correlation between estradiol in seminal plasma and semen parameters of male infertile patients and to explore the value of seminal estradiol in predicting sperm quality. Methods A total of 86 infertility men who visited the reproductive center of our hospital from October to December 2018 were randomly selected and were measured semen parameters according to the WHO laboratory standard. We also tested seminal plasma estradiol by chemiluminescence. The patients were divided into four groups according to the seminal parameters: oligozoospermia (group 1, n=12), asthenospermia (group 2, n=24), oligoasthenozoospermia (group 3, n=24), normozoospermia (group 4, n=26). Results The level of estradiol in seminal plasma in group 1 to 4 were respectively (56.97±10.55) pg/ml, (52.30±8.64) pg/ml, (54.02±11.63) pg/ml, and (45.79±5.87) pg/ml, with statistically significant difference (P<0.01). The correlation analysis showed that the seminal plasma estradiol was negatively correlated with sperm concentration and sperm progressive motility, was not correlated with sperm normal morphology and sperm acrosin activity. The ROC curve of estradiol was drawn for the diagnosis of abnormal sperm. The cut off value of curve was 42.50 pg/ml, the sensitivity was 90.00%, the specificity 69.23%, the area under the curve was 0.737 (P<0.01), and the 95% confidence interval was (0.634, 0.840). Conclusion Seminal plasma E2 more than 42.50 pg/ml may be connected with abnormal sperm counts and vitality. Therefore, seminal plasma estradiol has certain forecastable value, which can be used as evaluation index of the diagnosis and treatment of male infertility patients. Key words: Estradiol; Sperm motility parameters; Sperm morphology; Acrosin