Journal of

Background and Aim: Early diagnosis of pregnancy is very important to prevent fetal damage due to specific drug consumption and high-risk behaviors. The objective of this study was to compare the sensitivity and specificity of quantitative agglutination pregnancy tests in urine and rapid β hCG immunoenzymatic assay test in serum as a gold standard.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed among 390 women who referred to healthcare centers where their urine samples were tested with latex agglutination (direct agglutination and agglutination inhibition) and the results were compared with rapid β hCG immunoenzymatic assay test in serum as a gold standard.

Results: The sensitivity of direct agglutination (82.05 % ) was more than that of agglutination inhibition (81.2 % ), but the specificity of the tests were equal (99.27 % ). The agreement coefficients between direct agglutination and agglutination inhibition on the one hand and rapid β HCG immunoenzymatic assay on the other were 0.859 and 0.853, respectively.

Conclusion : The possibility of negative results in direct agglutination is more than that of agglutination inhibition, but the specificity of both qualitative tests is equal. Besides, both tests may have an equal possibility of false positive results. Since the occurrence of false negative results in qualitative tests is higher than that in serum gold standard, the negative results of such tests should be confirmed with more sensitive methods such as rapid β hCG immunoenzymatic assay.

Background and Aim: Infertility is a major problem of modern medicine as it affects almost 20% of reproductive-aged couples. The cause of this problem is attributed to the male partner in nearly 40%-50% of these cases. The role of herpes simplex virus (HSV) in male infertility has been investigated using the sensitive methods. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of HSV-1, 2 DNA in the semen, blood and urine of idiopathic infertile men and its association with altered semen parameters.
Materials and Methods: A total of 150 semen, blood and urine samples from infertile men were collected in the Shariati hospital, Tehran (2012-2014). Sample analysis and diagnostic PCR using specific primers was performed for detection of HSV-1, 2 DNA in the specimens.
Results: Analysis showed six groups of infertile men, including HSV-1, 2 positive and negative groups in semen, blood and urine samples. HSV-1, 2 DNA was detected in 38 (18.66%) semens, (6.66%) 10 in blood and 2 (1.33%) in urine. Only HSV-1, 2 positive samples of semen had abnormal semen parameters.
Conclusion: Using a powerful molecular method, we detected a high prevalence of HSV-1, 2 DNA in the semen of asymptomatic infertile patients. Although HSV-1, 2 infections were not associated with motility and morphology defects of the sperms, it was related with decreased sperm count in the semen fluid. In addition there was not a significant role for detection of HSV-1, 2 DNA in blood and urine samples of infertile men and abnormal semen parameters.