To assess the usefulness of routine determination of neutral a-glucosidase (NAG) in andrology, 216 ejaculates were analyzed for NAG activity and semen quality. A correlation between NAG activity and semen volume and sperm concentration was determined; however, no correlation was observed between NAG activity and sperm motility or sperm morphology. The number of azoospermic ejaculates that had NAG activity below acceptable levels was significantly higher than the number of non-azoospermic ejaculates with similarly low NAG levels. Routine determination of NAG activity is not practical; however, when an epididymal pathology leading to a physiological or anatomical functional alteration is suspected, the determination of NAG activity is a valuable tool in the diagnosis, and would also aid in the prognosis.

To evaluate the association between neutral alpha-glucosidase (NAG) activity and sperm DNA fragmentation (DFI), ejaculates from 24 men undergoing evaluation for sperm DNA damage as a part of infertility assessment were analysed. The mean +/- SD and range for the semen quality of the 24 ejaculates are as follows: volume (3.1 +/- 1.3, 1.8-6.0 ml); sperm concentration (45.6 +/- 41.1, 1.3-151.2 x 10(6) ml(-1)); sperm motility (52.8 +/- 28.8, 1-95%); sperm with fragmented DNA (17.6 +/- 15.4, 1.7-56.0%); sperm with immature chromatin (9.6 +/- 3.8, 2.5-19.1%); NAG activity (37.9 +/- 18.3, 4.4-75.3 mU ml(-1)). The only sperm parameter significantly correlated with neutral alpha-glucosidase is the percentage of sperm DFI [correlation coefficient (r) = 0.4376, P = 0.03].

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