Evaluation of the Utility of Seminal Plasma Resistin and Leptin in Predicting Successful Surgical Sperm Retrieval in Men with Non-Obstructive Azoospermia

Background: the purpose of the current study was evaluation of the utility of seminal plasma (sp) resistin and leptin in predicting successful surgical sperm retrieval (ssr) in men with non-obstructive azoospermia (noa). methods: this prospective comparative study was conducted in the andrology clinic of a specialized fertility center. in total, 53 noa men as candidates for either first time micro‐testicular sperm extraction (micro-tese) or repeat micro-tese and 28 normozoospermic controls were included. elisa was used for measurement of sp resistin and leptin levels in all participants. significance level was defined as p<0.05. results: the current study demonstrated a significant positive correlation between estradiol (e2) level in serum and sp resistin (r=0.342, p=0.025). also, there was a highly significant positive correlation between sp leptin and sp resistin (r=0.568, p= 0.001). interestingly, sp leptin was the only variable that demonstrated a significant correlation with eventful micro-tese outcome in men who underwent micro-tese for the first time. finally, roc curve showed that sp leptin level of 4.05 ng/ml predicted successful ssr in men who underwent micro-tese for the first time with a sensitivity of 73.3% and a specificity of 75% as 11 out of 27 (41%) cases showed eventful micro-tese at or above this cut-off level [auc of 0.747, 95% ci, lower bound of 0.555, and upper bound of 0.939, p=0.030]. conclusion: sp leptin can be used as a non-invasive biomarker to predict successful ssr in noa cases undergoing first time micro-tese, while sp resistin failed to play the same role.