ObjectiveThe main objective of this study was to assess semen characteristics of
patients with testicular cancer before cryopreservation and after thawing,
to evaluate the consequences of this technique on sperm quality in patients
with testicular cancer.MethodsFive hundred eighty-nine samples from 543 patients with testicular cancer
were cryopreserved between 1995 and 2015, one aliquot per patient was used
for a thawing test to assess the impact of cryopreservation on sperm
motility; semen analysis was performed before cryo preservation and after
thawing, the result interpretation was carried out using the 2010 World
Health Organization (WHO) Laboratory Manual, and consent forms were signed
by the patients for freezing and when sperm was used for reproductive
purposes.ResultsHypospermia was observed in 28.7% of samples, the median sperm concentration
was 18 million/mL with 35% oligozoospermia; twenty-two patients (4.1%) had
azoospermia and 12.7% had severe oligozoospermia, the median sperm count was
31.3 million and 261 semen samples (44.3%) were normal in all parameters
according to the WHO; total motile sperm count before cryopreservation and
after thawing was 12 (0-412.2) and 7 (0-303.9) million sperm, respectively
(p < 0.00001, 95% CI 5.48-14.91), which represents a
32% reduction; concerning the utilization of cryopreserved semen samples,
only twelve patients (2.2%) used their frozen sperm for reproductive
purposes.ConclusionsAn impairment in semen quality was found in almost half of the samples from
patients with testicular cancer, only few patients had azoospermia or severe
oligozoospermia; sperm cryopreservation significantly reduces sperm motility
and total motile sperm count and very few patients use their frozen sperm
for reproductive purposes.
The magnetic behavior of Gd2O3 nanoparticles, produced by thermal decomposition method and subsequently annealed at different temperatures, was investigated by magnetization measurements and, at an atomic level, by perturbed γ − γ angular correlation (PAC) spectroscopy measuring hyperfine interactions at 111In(111Cd) probe nuclei. Nanoparticle structure, size and shape were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Magnetization measurements were carried out to characterize the paramagnetic behavior of the samples. XRD results show that all samples crystallize in the cubic-C form of the bixbyite structure with space group Ia3. TEM images showed that particles annealed at 873 K present particles with highly homogeneous sizes in the range from 5 nm to 10 nm and those annealed at 1273 K show particles with quite different sizes from 5 nm to 100 nm, with a wide size distribution. PAC and magnetization results show that samples annealed at 873 and 1273 K are paramagnetic. Magnetization measurements show no indication of blocking temperatures for all samples down to 2 K and the presence of antiferromagnetic correlations.
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