Wireless, soft electronics for rapid, multisensor measurements of hydration levels in healthy and diseased skin.

Precise, quantitative measurements of the hydration status of skin can yield important insights into dermatological health and skin structure and function, with additional relevance to essential processes of thermoregulation and other features of basic physiology. Existing tools for determining skin water content exploit surrogate electrical assessments performed with bulky, rigid, and expensive instruments that are difficult to use in a repeatable manner. Recent alternatives exploit thermal measurements using soft wireless devices that adhere gently and noninvasively to the surface of the skin, but with limited operating range (∼1 cm) and high sensitivity to subtle environmental fluctuations.

Varicocelectomy improves sperm strict morphology and motility.

Purpose: We prospectively examined the effect of varicocelectomy on standard semen parameters and Kruger strict morphology, including site of specific sperm defect.

Materials And Methods: Kruger strict morphology and routine semen analysis were performed in a blinded fashion before and a minimum of 4 months after varicocelectomy in 61 subfertile men with a primary diagnosis of varicocele.

Results: Sperm motility, total number of motile sperm, and percentage and total number of sperm with normal strict morphology were significantly increased after varicocele repair.

Image analysis assessment of testicular touch preparation cytologies effectively quantifies human spermatogenesis.

Purpose: We have recently demonstrated that computer assisted image analysis of paraffin embedded testicular tissue based on deoxyribonucleic acid content and morphology characteristics is an effective method for the quantitative assessment of spermatogenesis. We assess the use of testicular touch preparation image analysis as a technique for quantification of spermatogenesis.

Materials And Methods: Air dried, touch imprints of testicular tissue from obstructed azoospermic and severely oligozoospermic patients were obtained at the time of biopsy.

The prevalence of cystic abnormalities of the prostate involving the ejaculatory ducts as detected by transrectal ultrasound.

Purpose: To determine the prevalence of cystic lesions of the prostate involving the ejaculatory ducts using transrectal ultrasound (TRUS).

Materials And Methods: The prevalence of cystic lesions of the prostate involving the ejaculatory ducts was determined in a prostate cancer screening group and also in an "at risk" population of men with infertility.

Results: Cystic lesions of the prostate involving the ejaculatory ducts as detected by TRUS were detected in 5.

Absence of DAZ gene mutations in cases of non-obstructed azoospermia.

Sequenced-tagged site (STS) analysis of the Y chromosome long arm (Yq) of azoospermic males has identified a minimum common deleted region of several hundred kilobases in approximately 13% of cases. A candidate azoospermia gene, DAZ (deleted in azoospermia), has been isolated from this region. DAZ has also been shown to be absent in severely oligozoospermic males albeit at a much lower frequency.