Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29633742›Full record

ArticleActa bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis2018

A pilot study on sperm DNA damage in β-thalassemia major: is there a role for antioxidants?

Heba Elsedfy, Vincenzo De Sanctis, Alaa Youssef Ahmed, Noha Refaat Mohamed, Mohamed Arafa, Mohsen Saleh Elalfy

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
1.0field-weighted citation impact, top 21% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Review
  5. Effects of Environmental and Pathological Hypoxia on Male Fertility.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2021
    Review
  6. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Heba Elsedfy. dralaayoussef@gmail.com.
Vincenzo De Sanctis. vdesanctis@libero.it.
Alaa Youssef AhmedFaculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University Abbassia Square 11566 Cairo (Egypt). dralaayoussef@gmail.com.
Noha Refaat Mohamed. dralaayoussef@gmail.com.
Mohamed Arafa. dralaayoussef@gmail.com.
Mohsen Saleh Elalfy. dralaayoussef@gmail.com.
Ain Shams University · EG

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Excess iron deposition in patients with beta thalassemia major (BTM) causes excess free radical formation, damages the hypothalamic pituitary testicular axis and production of sperms with DNA defects. As antioxidants were reported to improve fertility in healthy males; their effectiveness to improve sperm DNA defects in adult males with BTM was studied. Twenty fully pubertal BTM patients were included consecutively, all had semen analysis; 10 were found to be azoospermic, so further analysis for sperms and DNA defects was conducted on the remaining 10 participants. Semen was analyzed for antioxidants in seminal plasma and sperms for defects including the DNA fragmentation index, sperm deformity index, teratozospermia index and acrosomal index. Participants were then given L-carnitine and N-acetylcysteine for 6 months. All semen parameters were reassessed after treatment. The sperm deformity index and teratozospermia index increased significantly after treatment from 1.90±0.33 to 2.46±0.61 and from 1.59±0.22 to 1.86±0.28 respectively. So, apparently antioxidants accentuated sperm deformities in men with BTM. Therefore, the results of this study are not in favour with the use of antioxidants in BTM patients for improving potential fertility. Larger studies, however, are needed to confirm these preliminary results.

Indexed as

DNA DamageAcetylcysteineAdultAntioxidantsbeta-ThalassemiaCarnitineDNA FragmentationHumansMalePilot ProjectsSpermatozoaTeratozoospermiaAcetylcysteineAntioxidantsCarnitine

Identifiers

PMID29633742
PMCPMC6357624
OpenAlexW2800354024

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-SA
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.