Abstract:
OBJECTIVE To explore the relationship between the Mycoplasma (MP) infection and the semen quality of the male patients with suspected urogenital tract infection.
METHODS The clinical data were collected from 975 male patients with suspected urogenital tract infection who were treated in Nanyang First People′s Hospital from Jan. 2021 to Dec. 2023. The patients were divided into the positive group with 298 cases and the negative group with 677 cases according to the result of MP test. The urinary tract secretions, semen, prostatic fluid or midstream urine specimens were collected from the patients, the MP was detected by means of polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Conventional isolation and culture were carried out for the MP, the drug susceptibility testing was performed. The volume of semen, liquefaction time, sperm motility, sperm concentration and percentages of forward and non-forward movement sperm were detected.
RESULTS A total of 298 (30.56%) cases of MP infection were detected by PCR. The infection rate was 36.22% in 2021, 32.88% in 2022, 27.62% in 2023. Totally 218 samples were cultered, 48.62% of which were Ureaplasma urealyticum (UU), 23.85% were Mycoplasma hominis (MH), and 19.27% were UU plus MH. The isolation rate of the urinary tract secretion specimens was 83.77%, the isolation rate of the prostatic fluid specimens was 49.25%, the isolation rate of the semen specimens was 62.96%, and the isolation rate of midstream urine specimens was 61.54%. The drug resistance rates of the patients with MP infection to erythromycin, azithromycin and erythromycin were high, while the drug susceptibility rates to doxycycline, josamycin and minocycline were high. The volume of semen, sperm motility, sperm concentration and percentage of forward movement sperm were lower in the positive group than in the negative group, and the liquefaction time of the positive group was longer than that of the negative group(P < 0.05); there was no significant difference in the percentage of non-forward movement sperm between the two groups.
CONCLUSIONS The patients with UU, MH and UU plus MH infections are dominant among the patients with urogenital tract MP infection. Apart from the control of infection, it is necessary to pay attention to the infertility that may happen to the MP-positive patients.