Predictive value of sperm fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis on the outcome of preimplantation genetic diagnosis for translocations

Objective: To determine whether the proportion of abnormal sperm is predictive of the proportion of abnormal embryos from couples in which the males are translocation carriers. Design: Controlled clinical study. Setting: Private in vitro fertilization (IVF) center. Patient(s): Eleven cases of reciprocal translocation male carriers. Intervention(s): Blood sample and sperm sample collection from each male partner. Embryo biopsy of the embryos produced in each cycle. Main Outcome Measure(s): Fluorescence in situ hybridization on lymphocyte slides to characterize each translocation case, then fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) with specific probes for each of the sperm samples. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis of the translocations in the 11 cases. Result(s): A correlation was found between the percentage of abnormal gametes and the percentage of abnormal embryos, and a predictive equation is proposed for this relationship: A = -55 + (1.9 x B), where A is the percentage of abnormal embryos and B the percentage of abnormal sperm. Conclusion(s): The predictive value of the sperm analysis was established. Patients with 65% or less chromosonially abnormal sperm have a good chance at conceiving; patients with higher rates would need to produce 10 or more good quality embryos to have reasonable chances of conceiving.