Artificial Neural Network for the Prediction of Chromosomal Abnormalities in Azoospermic Males

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate whether an artifical neural network helps to diagnose any chromosomal abnormalities in azoospermic males.

Materials and Methods: The data of azoospermic males attending to a tertiary academic referral center were evaluated retrospectively. Height, total testicular volume, follicle stimulating hormone, luteinising hormone, total testosterone and ejaculate volume of the patients were used for the analyses. In artificial neural network, the data of 310 azoospermics were used as the education and 115 as the test set. Logistic regression analyses and discriminant analyses were performed for statistical analyses. The tests were re-analysed with a neural network. Results: Both logistic regression analyses and artificial neural network predicted the presence or absence of chromosomal abnormalities with more than 95% accuracy.

Conclusion: The use of artificial neural network model has yielded satisfactory results in terms of distinguishing patients whether they have any chromosomal abnormality or not.