The effect of oral administration of Pentoxifylline on sperm motility ofasthenozoospermic ejaculates from men with or without testicularvaricoceles

Pentoxifylline (px) is a methyxanthin derivative that influences the sperm motioncharacteristics. in general, px has been reportedly effective in preserving sperm motility in vitro,also when administered orally to the asthenozoospennic patients.objective: the main objective of this prospective clinical trial study was to rule out the effect oforal administration of px on sperm progressive motility of asthenozoospermic ejaculates obtainedfrom men with or without mild testicular varicoceles. in addition, the role of patient's age on spermmotility following px administration was investigated.materials and methods: a total of 68 infertile men with asthenozoospermia were allocated to thisstudy. following physical examination, 20 cases were found with mild varicocele of testis . adosage of 400 mg pxi twice daily for duration of 3 months was administered to each patient. twosemen samples (one before and one after the px therapy) were evaluated under blind condition.semen parameters of sperm concentration, total and fast progressive motility (%) and morphology(%) were analyzed for each sample. also, the sperm motion characteristics of asthenozoospennicpatients with testicular varicocele were compared with cases lacking varicocele. the subjects weredivided into two age groups of <30 and 2:30 years old.results: px was significantly effective on the fast progressive motility of sperm (p<0.01) . also,total progressive motility was enhanced from 26.82:t16.8 to 29.60±22.2 with px therapy. however,px did not have any negative effect on other semen parameters. oral therapy of px was alsoeffective in improvin g the fast progressive motility of sperm of samples from cases with or withoutmild testicular varicocele (p