The Value Of The Serum Inhibin-B In The Diagnosis Of Azoospermia (with 67 Cases)

Objective: To evaluate the concentrations of serum inhibin- B in the differential diagnosis of obstructive and non-obstructive azoospermia, and compare with the value of serum FSH, also find the best reference value of the diagnosis. Methods: There were 67 patients with azoospermia, we final diagnosed them through combination methods. It included 18 infertilemen with obstructive azoospermia ( groupâ… ), another 49 with non-obstructive azoospermia(groupâ…¡) and 60 normal fertilemen as controls(groupâ…¢), evaluate the concentrations of serum inhibin B in the differential diagnosis of obstructive and non-obstructive azoospermia through retrospective study. Result: The concentrations of serum inhibin-B had no differents between the controls and obstructive azoospermia group, also the same results of serum FSH. The concentrations of serum inhibin-B in non-obstructive azoospermia group obviously lower than the controls and obstructive azoospermia group (p<0.01), while the FSH obviously higher than the controls and obstructive azoospermia group (p<0.01). The concentrations of serum inhibin-B and FSH had an obviously negative correlation in each group (r=-0.65). The area under curve of the ROC curve of serum inhibin-B was obviously larger than the area of FSH (p<0.01). The cutoff point or the best reference value of the diagnosis of serum inhibin-B was 127.49 pg/ml, the sensitivity and the specificity was separately 69.4% and 83.3%, and the cutoff point of FSH was 7.8mIU/mL, the sensitivity and the specificity was separately 46.9% and 88.9%. Conclusion: The value of serum inhibin-B in the differential diagnosis of obstructive and non-obstructive azoospermia was higher than serum FSH. Because there was some difference between the best reference value of the diagniosis of what we calculated out and of what the kit recommended, we strongly suggest that when we use serum inhibin- B and FSH to differential diagnosis of obstructive and non-obstructive azoospermia, we should calculate our own best reference value of the diagnosis to fit for both the lab and the crowd.