Vertebral heights and ratios are not only race-specific, but also gender- and region-specific: establishment of reference values for mainland Chinese.

Unlabelled: This study established gender-specific reference values in mainland Chinese (MC) and is important for quantitative morphometry for diagnosis and epidemiological study of osteoporotic vertebral compressive fracture. Comparisons of reference values among different racial populations are then performed to demonstrate the MC-specific characteristic.

Purpose: Osteoporotic vertebral compressive fracture (OVCF) is a common complication of osteoporosis in the elder population.

[Screening of Y chromosome microdeletions in infertile males with varicocele].

Objective: To investigate the relationship between Y chromosome microdeletions and human spermatogenesis in infertile men with varicocele (VC).

Methods: We divided 174 infertile VC patients into groups A (with azoospermia, n = 47) , B (with severe oligozoospermia, n=57) and C (with mild oligozoospermia, n=70), and enlisted 28 fertile males and 26 fertile females as normal controls. We collected DNA from the peripheral blood, amplified 6 sequence tagged sites in AZFa, AZFb and AZFc using multiplex PCR technique.