[Value of the meiosis test in male infertility]

The histological evaluation of testicular biopsy in the investigation of infertility was supplemented by cytogenetic analysis of spermatogenesis in 72 patients from 1976--1978. The results show meiosis analysis to be a practical aid in the assessment of male infertility. It enables the point of interruption in the meiotic process to be accurately identified. A review of relative populations of meiotic and of interphase nuclei (the meiotic index) permits evaluation of a quantitative disturbance of spermatogenesis, a finding that is of particular value when establishing a patient's prognosis. Moreover, meiotic analysis makes it possible to recognize cytogenetic anomalies which could be responsible for the infertility state and which were chiefly seen in patients whose so-called primary infertility was hitherto classified as being of unknown origin. In two patients we thus identified a small additional chromosome in a fraction of the germinal cells, and also an abnormal pairing of all chromosomes, or the sex chromosomes alone, during the first meiotic division.