[Primary ciliary dyskinesia. Clinical presentation and diagnosis].

Unlabelled: Primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) is a genetic disease characterized by abnormalities in ciliary structure/function.

Objective: We analyzed the main clinical features and test results of PCD in order to evaluate their usefulness for diagnosis.

Patients And Methods: Retrospective study of 35 cases of PCD evaluated by the same team, with nasal brushings in all cases (special light microscopy) and electron microscopy and/or by isotopic mucociliary clearance study in some.

Assisted reproduction techniques for HIV serodiscordant couples: 18 months of experience.

Background: Assisted reproduction techniques can minimize the risk of infection and treat possible sterility associated with serodiscordant couples.

Methods: We assessed the efficacy of these techniques in 57 couples in which at least one partner had human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection that was currently under control (47 men and 10 women). The semen of seropositive men was prepared and tested for viruses.

[Seminal fluid, bacteria, and spermatozoa ].

The antibacterial function of the seminal plasma is subdivided in: inhibition of the bacterial proliferation; inhibition of the bacterial adherence; reduction of the concentration of coiled tail spermatozoas. The reduction of the antibacterial activity of the seminal plasma can explain the high frequency of the genital tract reinfection.

[Inflammatory proteins of the seminal fluid].

If the clinical asymptomatic infection of the genital tract is a very frequent diagnosis of the hypofertility, it's quite important to know if the infection is evolutive or not. The assessment of inflammatory proteins of the seminal plasma as albumin IgA, gamma-globulins, lysozyme allows to do the differential diagnosis. So, an increase of such proteins is the expression of an evolutive infection.

Alterations in the lipid composition of seminal plasma in patients with a chronic infection of the urogenital tract.

The lipid composition of seminal plasma was studied in 15 control subjects and 21 patients consulting for hypofertility and showing a chronic infection of the urogenital tract. In the infected patients a significant reduction in total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and total phospholipids was noted. Moreover, there is a significant correlation between the rates of total cholesterol and prostatic acid phosphatases and the rates of phospholipids and proteins in seminal plasma.